43 days of grief and uncertainty as Somali families seek burial of Al Hodeida attack victims

They have not been buried yet and no one is telling us anything about it. We would like them to be buried immediately before they are destroyed in refrigerators.

Sahra Osman is a distraught woman whose quest to have her daughter Hafso Omar Ismael 20, given a dignified burial has remained a long shot more than 40 days since a suspected Apache helicopter attack killed her and 41 other Somali refugees aboard a boat to Sudan off the Yemeni coast of Al Hodeida.

Somali consulate

The first time Goobjoog News spoke with Mama Sahra from Las Anod, Sool region in April 5, she said no one in government had contacted them regarding any progress towards having their loved ones interred. An official at the Somali consulate in Yemen later promised to update them but has since gone mute.

“We have not heard anything from him since then and his phone is switched off,” Sahra told Goobjoog News Wednesday adding not even a word from Mogadishu has been forthcoming.

Ali Yare, a UN refugee registrar in San’a, Yemen told Goobjoog News failure to get death certificates and burial permits has led to delays in burying the dead. Hodeida is under Houthi control, an Iranian backed rebel group which is seeking the ouster of the country’s president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Diplomatic relations

Yare’s efforts at getting the support of the Somali government have also not borne fruits yet. “We do not recognise the Houthis therefore we cannot initiate any talks. We have established diplomatic relations with the government of Yemen,” the government said in response to Yare’s request for government intervention.

Abdirashid Ali Ibrahim from Burao in Togdher region is also still in the dark with no information filtering following the loss of his child in the deadly March 16 attack.

“To our knowledge, they have not been buried and this is subjecting us to a lot of grieve. When people die they are buried and the grief goes away slowly but when they are yet to be buried we remain in grief,” said Ibrahim.

Ibrahim is calling on the government to intervene and ensure their children are buried soonest possible.

Wounded

The 14 others who were wounded are still receiving treatment in hospitals in Hudeida, Yare said noting four of them are still in serious condition. Male survivors are in a central jail while women and children have been detained in IOM refugee camps.

Even as Somali families seek the very basic support-to bury their loved ones, international actors in the ongoing Yemeni conflict have given calls for inquiry into the killings of the Somali refugees a deaf ear. Neither the Houthi groups nor the Saudi led coalition has accepted responsibility reducing the 42 into another statistic in the two year conflict.

The Federal Government of Somalia too is yet to concretely respond to the cries of families whose loved ones are yet to be buried 43 days on.