Goormuu ayeeyooyinka xijaab waajib ku noqday...

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

...let alone jilbaabka ee dadka ku qasbaan kuwaas waalan. Yaabkooda waa joogto socoto dhamaad lahayn. Read on.

__________________

 

Somali refugees' tale of blood, sweat and tears

 

Sitting on the barren ground and waving away dust swirling around her, Khadija Abdi Hajji patiently waits for the metal gates to open.

 

Hajji, 62, is in a group of Somalis who have just entered Kenya to escape years of violence in their country.

 

Travelling in a rickety van, they are lucky to have made it safely to the sprawling Ifo refugee camp in Garissa. As the van comes to a stop and gates to the camp are swung open, a stream of haggard looking women and children disembark.

 

"

I fled from my home in Kismayu last week. I will never go back

," she declares.

 

For months, she persevered as ten of her close relatives were gunned down by Al-Shabaab, a terrorist group that controls swathes of Somalia.

 

"

A few weeks ago, a group of youths stopped me and decreed that the material of my bui bui (veil worn by Muslim women) was not heavy enough. They arrested and locked me up for hours

," Khadija recalls.

 

After three more arrests and whipping

, she sold all her belongings and headed for Kenya.

 

As she waits to be registered, she is living at Ifo, one of three camps which make up Daadab.

 

The other two are Dagahaley and Hagadera.

 

If she is lucky, Khadija will join an estimated 271,000 of her countrymen and women who are currently residing in the camps. The entire settlement has a population of 289,000 souls.

 

According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the fighting in Somalia has caused a steady flow of people into Kenya. More than 1,000 Somalis are arriving in the camps weekly.

 

The UN body said this year alone, more than 37,000 people have crossed the border into the camps.

 

However, conditions at the camps are deplorable. Firewood supply is rapidly diminishing, posing unprecedented problems to UNHCR, which has ran out cash.

 

More

[Maaddeey]

^Sheeko aa keentay bee duqa!.

 

Guriga Sh. Mukhtar in ijaar lagaa siiyo waaye! . Dagaalka jooji!

[Jacaylbaro]

Hajji, 62,

Inaalillaaah ,,,,