Remote Somali village reels from latest hardship

[Nationalist]

January 08, 2005 - 01:36

Remote Somali village reels from latest hardship

 

 

USA Today, 7 Dec. 2004=

 

By Rob Crilly, Special for USA TODAY =

 

When the wave first swept through Foar, a village of 1,000 on Somalia's Indian Ocean coast, it carried lobsters halfway up the hillside.

 

At first, fishermen scooped the bounty into their nets and gave praise to Allah. Then the waves returned twice more. Foar was gone.

 

The village of stick-and-mud huts was swamped by the Asian tsunami Dec. 26, which traveled 3,750 miles from Indonesia to batter the African coast.

 

Salah Shino, 70, was in his hut about 100 yards from what should have been the high-water mark. "We heard a woman crying, rushed out and saw the sea coming in and up," he said.

 

Salah and others scrambled up a 100-foot escarpment. The water poured 200 yards inland and halfway up the hill, where hundreds of families huddled.

 

As the sea receded, it filled wells with saltwater, swept 50 boats off the beach and destroyed more than 25 homes. Now, there is little fresh water or food, and the men have lost their livelihood.

 

By the time the tsunami waters hit Somalia, TV was broadcasting non-stop coverage of the disaster in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Kenya, to the south of Somalia, had time to recall its fishing boats and close its tourist beaches.

 

There was no warning in Somalia, where there has been no formal government since 1991, when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown.

 

At least 298 died here, far fewer than in Asia. But tens of thousands of people may be homeless and without food or fresh water.

 

Since Siad Barre's overthrow, Somalia has been splintered into fiefdoms run by rival warlords. In the capital, Mogadishu, U.S. Army Rangers on a peacekeeping mission in 1993 were ambushed by mobs as they tried to rescue the pilots of a downed Black Hawk helicopter.

 

A new Somali government that was established in neighboring Kenya aims to go home and re-establish order by the end of the month.

 

In the meantime, banditry and corruption are rife. Anti-aircraft batteries have prevented aid officials from flying over the coast to assess the tsunami's devastation.

 

The people of Foar are in one of the world's most-remote regions, 250 miles from the nearest airstrip. The 10-hour journey through semi-arid scrubland can be made only with armed escorts. The kingdom of Puntland, which includes Foar, is at war with the neighboring kingdom of Somaliland.

kingdoms kulaha.

 

 

The tsunami was the third recent blow to hit a country torn apart by war. Drought has ravaged the country for the past four years. In November, heavy rains brought floods, killing thousands of goats - the lifeblood of rural Somalia.

 

Maulid Warfa, program officer for the World Food Program in Somalia, said the population has run out of survival strategies. "In the absence of state institutions, people rely on local support networks. As time goes on, the more it weakens," he said. "So now, with this tsunami coming at the best time for fishing, all those people who were supported by the fishermen need another support group."

 

As desperate as the situation is here, it appears to be better than in some of the more-remote areas. The World Food Program is using Foar as an aid-distribution center for its teams, which have spread out along the coastline to assess the damage. Adding to the problem of providing relief: incomplete data on the coastal population. "We have estimates," Warfa said. "But nobody really knows yet how many people are affected."

 

As the devastated beach at Foar was lit by the star-speckled sky, an aid truck returned from Hafun - a narrow peninsula that bore the brunt of the sea's surge. The truck, which had delivered sacks of rice, lentils and corn, was full of refugees when it returned to Foar.

 

Dawla Ali, 23, stepped onto the beach with her daughter Nasra, 18 months, and viewed the shore littered with shredded nets and wrecked homes as if it were the promised land. "I have come here because it is a safer place," she said. "There are mountains here, and we can reach safety. Hafun is flat and open. I am afraid the tsunami will happen again."

 

 

* Foar in Somali Focaar is located near Eyl and is one of the villages swept by the Tsunami. Foar, Hafun, Garacad, Kulub are currently receiving emergency relief and are to receive a part of the long term rebuilding programme wich will rebuild the fishing sector as well as water, sanitation, health and education. India's refused share is believed to increase Somalia's funds.