Hundreds of Somali internally displaced people including elderly, women and children Wednesday staged a demonstration in the outskirts of Somali capital Mogadishu to voice their concerns over lack of water that has engulfed their camps.

The demonstrators said they have been abandoned by the aid agencies, calling on all concerned authorities to come to their rescue.

“We are demonstrating against water shortage that has been affecting us for months now. We used to get water from the aid agencies but they all stopped the distribution,” said Raho Ahmed, a mother of nine, who live in a camp near Lafole University, outskirts of Mogadishu. 

She added that her family survives on 20 litters of water, which according to her is not enough for her large family.

“We are appealing to aid agencies to return and assist us with water, the basic life commodity, which has been elusive since they left,” said 76-year old Ali Farah, who was among the demonstrators.

Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was the last aid agency that provided water to the IDPs, however, early this year, it announced the decision to stop the distribution of water because of insecurity.

Most of the aid agencies have pulled all their international staffs from the war-torn country due to insecurity, leaving the devastated population of internally displaced Somalis to rely on some local aid workers who represent the aid agencies.

GAROWE ONLINE