Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has blamed Al-Shabaab militants for forcing people to beg and rely on humanitarian aid after refusing the people to farm.
Speaking at an event in Badioa on Thursday night, the president said the militants had forced people to give up farming if they did not pay.
Together with Southwest state president Abdiaziz Laftagaren, Mohamud visited the drought-stricken areas in Baidoa, where he listened to the IDPs and how the drought-affected them. The president was filmed entering the internally displaced people’s houses and carrying the children.
“People with dignity, honour, free and proud of their environment, have been forced to rely on humanitarian aid for fear of endangering themselves and their children,” he said during his tour inside the camps in Baidoa, the interim capital of Southwest regional state.
President Hassan Sheikh said the only way for Somalia is to fight al-Shabaab to restore the dignity of the Somali people.
Accompanying Somalia’s newly-appointed drought envoy on his first field visit on Tuesday, the United Nations’ top humanitarian official for the Horn of Africa country warned of the devastating outlook for millions of affected Somalis amidst heightened risks of famine.
Mr. Abdelmoula spoke at the ‘ADC’ camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in the Baidoa district of Somalia’s South West State. He was accompanying Somalia’s Special Envoy for Drought Response, Abdirahman Abdishakur, who was appointed by the Somali president in late May, on his visit to an IDP camp.
“The situation is extremely dire and grim: 7.1 million people will be affected by this drought situation before the end of this year,” said the Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Adam Abdelmoula.
“Unfortunately, about 1.4 million children are facing acute malnutrition this year, and 330,000 are likely to become severely malnourished,” he added.
