Mercy Corps: Walking for weeks to reach Mogadishu's sprawling camps

Courtesy of Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

Please find below excerpts from Cassandra Nelson's account of her field visit. Read the full text here.

"I spent several days visiting the camps in Mogadishu where Mercy Corps is working to provide assistance to people who have been displaced by the famine, as well as years of civil war. There are almost 1.5 million displaced people in Somalia — and one-third of them, almost half a million people, are living in camps in Mogadishu.

Over the past 60 days alone, an estimated 100,000 Somalis — driven by drought and famine — have fled to Mogadishu in search of food, water, shelter and other assistance. Tens of thousands of people are moving in search of assistance and temporarily settle anywhere they can find a little space to set up a makeshift shelter.

 

For these displaced families, life is that of absolute destitution as they face a myriad of challenges ranging from thirst, hunger, exposure to the harsh sun, severe malnutrition, cholera, disease and more. Tens of thousands of people have already died." (Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps)

Read the full story here.