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| Africa Horn |
| Somali women haunted by rape, hunger & hyenas |
| 2009-10-27 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Hyenas, rape, kidnappings -- there is no shortage of dangers for women in the grim refugee camps of northern Somalia. But it is still better than the horrors they fled: civil war battles in Mogadishu, drought in neighboring Ethiopia, inter-clan warfare and what they say was state-sponsored ethnic persecution and killings. Many have "lost" their husbands. Some men abandoned their families, others tried to cross the Gulf of Aden into Yemen and have given no sign of life since. Some are still part of the family but are away eking out a living herding livestock. The wastelands on the edge of Galkayo, a large swathe of low thorn scrub where millions of plastic bags flutter in the breeze, are home to several camps. Weekly rape cases In a camp called Mustaqbal, which translates as "future", Halima, a divorcee of 35, recounted from behind her veil how she fled shelling in Mogadishu, 700 kilometers (430 miles) to the south, with her five children. "We are the breadwinners for our families. We have no husbands and our daily earnings are not enough to survive on," she said, gesticulating with henna-patterned hands. Halima has what is known locally as a "shoulder shop" -- she hawks goods -- in this case clothing -- from door to door. Without men the women are constantly at risk of attack. They have to pay for guards at night. "Not a week goes by when we don't have a rape case," said Hawa Adan Mohamed, a women's rights activist who runs vocational training schemes and manufacturing projects in Galkayo. "If you go to the police there's no follow up. They say that because of the clan issue they cannot touch the perpetrator." "Here the strongest man takes all," said a United Nations official. Just down the road in Bulo Baaley camp the smell is overbearing. After dark, adults and children alike defecate into plastic potties which stand in front of the huts. The shacks here are bigger but the landowner collects three dollars rent. "If you can't pay, he takes one of the children. He keeps the child until he gets paid," explained Kasman Katal, a mother of three who looks older than her 20 years. "My husband left for Yemen. We've had no news since. We don't know if he survived," she said, flapping at the flies swarming her baby's face. She and her neighbor Marianne Abdi, a pretty girl of 15 who is already divorced with a child, make money by removing garbage from houses in Galkayo and dumping it on the edge of town. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 Rape, Hunger & Hyenas... I think that's a K Street law firm. |
| Posted by: regular joe 2009-10-27 21:35 |
| #3 Hyenas = UN? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-10-27 05:32 |
| #2 BUSH'es FAULT! -- Leftist |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2009-10-27 00:47 |
| #1 See also WORLD NEWS > SOMALIA: WARLORDS, ISLAMISTS, AND ORGANIZED CRIME. We forgot the Commies, Anarchists, + anti-US LeftGlobalists, etal. didn't we! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-10-27 00:15 |