In Somalia, NGO’s is active with their project efforts to increase the living conditions for the population in the Northern part of the country, especially in Puntland. Somalia is a hard tested place and land area, on The Horn of Africa, where drought, climate change and conflict have challenged the land area to the limit, for decades. The struggle for resources within the country, in one of the world’s poorest countries, has created both division and union in the population, where the Puntland area in the north has challenges in cooperating on climate change with the government in southern Somalia, in Mogadishu. To the west, the third major regional area of Somaliland, formerly the colonial rule, wants to become independent from the rest of Somalia, but that conflict reached a new conclusion in 2023, when Laascaanood and SSC-Khaatumo seceded from Somaliland’s dominance.
Somalia Independency
Hamda Mohammed (27) works at the Safe Space Center with KAALO – Aid and Development Organization to help women and girls on gender-based violence, at a camp for internally displaced people Jilab 2 Camp. Hamda is a facilitator and safety educator, and conducts consultations with women and girls, and can also refer people to a hospital or a psychologist.
The atmosphere in the IDP (Internally Displaced People) camp Jilab 2 is harsh, and the poverty in Garowe, Puntland’s IDP camps is very evident. The Safe Space Center is a safe place where safety is the number one priority for women and girls. Many people from the southern part of Somalia have traveled to IDP camps in Garowe, Puntland, from economic problems and conflict, where i.a. the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab is active.
Somalia Independency
Boys stand at the entrance to Jawli Camp – IDP (Internally Displaced People). Here is a tree with different hangings made of textile, plastic and other things. Living conditions in Jawli Camp stand out from other camps for internally displaced people in Garowe, Puntland, Somalia, as the area is particularly harsh and struggles with poverty, hunger challenges and gender-based violence.
About 4 million people are internally displaced in Somalia, according to Refugees International, The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), UNHCR – The UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Measurements made in 2023.
Somalia Independency
View from the plane in the passage to Garowe, the capital of Puntland, in the Northern part of Somalia. The plane’s journey is from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, The Horn of Africa. Drought, conflict, climate change and fighting between clans are part of the normal picture. But also, economic development, new innovation projects, progress in human rights and decolonization.
Somalia Independency
Khadar Mohamud (45) comes walking through Lascanod General Hospital. He has badly injured his leg and has had a splint put on the shin of his left leg. The cause was fire from Somaliland forces. He is in the hospital to process his injury.
Somaliland forces tried to claim SSC-Khaatumo’s territory in Laascaanood, but SSC-Khaatumo’s Army stood the distance. The war lasted about nine months. It ended in August 2023. Somaliland was previously colonized by England. Somalia became independent in 1960 and established as a state.
Somalia Independency
Young soldiers pose for portraits at the Goojecade base, which is now controlled by the SSC-Khaatumo’s Army in the Laascaanood area. Previously, it was managed by, among others, the senior general of the Somaliland forces, who sent artillery from this position over the town of SSC-Khaatumo. The conflict lasted from late 2022 to August 2023 – a bloody war.
There are reports of around 1,000 dead people in the conflict with Somaliland, and several thousand injured. It has been a serious trauma for SSC-Khaatumo and Laascaanood.
Some young men apply to the military because it is a job opportunity, others because their fathers have died in the fighting with Somaliland.
Somalia Independency
Schoolgirls swing on the playground created to be a friendly place for children at the Jilab 2 camp – IDP (Internally Displaced People) by NGO’s, as well as implemented by KAALO – Aid and Development Organization. In the Jilab 2 Camp, more children go to school, and the mood for the playground is at its highest.
Somalia Independency
Abdirahman (8) and the father’s name is Mohamed Abdinasra at an institution for paralyzed people. The boy Abdirahman cannot walk and is now in a wheelchair after he was hit by artillery from Somaliland forces. The boy was hit in his spine and he will only be able to walk again if foreign health workers operate on him. SSC-Khaatumo does not have that capacity.
There are 50 people registered at the institution for paralyzed people.
Somalia Independency
Abdikadir owns about 25 camels and about 50 goats. He has lived his whole life as a Nomad, and is both happy and proud of his lifestyle, where he is the father of 10 children and has a woman with whom he lives. They live in a primitive wooden home, and may occasionally have to change their place of residence due to the dynamics of the climate. Omar Mohamed from KAALO – Aid and Development Organization hands Abdikadir a bottle of water, where NGO’s also supports Nomads with water and sanitary facilities around Puntland.
Abdikadir is from the Eyl area. He says that he is a harsh man, and does his best so that his children can go to school. Drought is the most challenging thing for a Nomadic existence in Somalia.
Somalia Independency
The coast at Eyl, where peace is secured. In the past, about 10 years ago, pirates were active in the area and occupied ships in sight, doing prisoner exchanges for money. It’s over. However, the water, which is full of salt, cannot be used as drinking water, as Somalia is a developing country without the necessary tools in Northern Somalia to turn the water into drinking water.
A man walks along the water before the evening prayer to Islam.
Somalia Independency
Hassan (12) lives in Jawli Camp for internally displaced people in Garowe, Puntland, Somalia. Hassan does not go to school, but helps his mother make shoes. Hunger, poverty and harsh living conditions characterize Jawli Camp – IDP (Internally Displaced People). Hassan is standing in front of a water station, where an elderly man is entering to fill his water bottle.
Somalia Independency
A security guard from the SPU – Special Protection Unit, trained by the UN, allows himself to be portrayed in the town of Eyl, at a historical area where they previously fought their land back from Italian occupation. Somalia was established in 1960. Today the area of Eyl is free of pirates from Somalia who hijack vessels on the coast.
Peace is assured.
Somalia Independency
A young schoolgirl stands next to her and her schoolmates’ school, talking together, during a break from classes. Garowe, Puntland, Northern Somalia.
Somalia, The Horn of Africa, is challenged by drought, climate change, internal disputes over resources among clans, but is also a country with progress, new initiatives and hope, to create an economy internally in the country, so as not to become overwhelmingly dependent on foreign funds and financial support.