Toilet Day: IDPs forced to queue in Mogadishu camps

As the world marks the World Toilets Day, thousands of displaced people residing in many camps across the city have little or no access to toilets.

There are close to half a million internally displaced people in Mogadishu. These people were displaced at different periods mostly starting from the 2011 famine to clan clashes and recently the 2017 drought which the UN estimates forced one million people from their homes.

In the outskirts of Mogadishu are Al Hidayo, Alfuto and Bulowarde camps which host well over 2,000 internally displaced people.

“We live in this camp with over 600 people. One toilet is allocated to 12 families. Even though we try to keep them clean, they are very insufficient for us because we are many,” one of the residents who did not want to be named told Goobjoog News.

Nadifo Hussein Mohamed is the supervisor of the three camps. “I work as a supervisor of these three camps. We lack enough toilets, food, water and education facilities. People have to queue for a long time to access the toilets.”

Mohamed said the camps host over 2,000 people and the camps are already overstretched. “We don’t know if the government is aware of the situation here.” According to Mohamed, new toilets were constructed by the humanitarian agency, Concern Agency but they are now full.

“What people now need urgently are toilets,” said Mohamed.

The UN estimates 4.5 billion people live without safely managed sanitation and 892 million people still practise open defecation.