Check out Manie and Mohamed’s joint article in SCIC’s newsletter, EarthBeat, on the crisis in Somalia.
ps. don’t be afraid of the download – it’s legit, we promise!
Tag Archives: Mohamed Hassan
What’s to blame in Somalia: drought or politics?
Mohamed is quickly becoming the go-to guy for people in Regina who are trying to learn more about the crisis in Somalia. Check out this interview he had with NewsTalk Radio CJME. Mohamed shines light on the fact that people in Somalia aren’t suffering only from drought and famine, but from people-made political barriers.
And it’s not only Mohamed talking about this. Abdi Ismail Samatar, a professor of geography at the University of Minnesota, argues that this famine, and ones seen before in Africa, have been caused not by drought by by sectarian politics:
Droughts are common in the Somali peninsula, but only an exceptional one produces famine. For instance, the Horn of Africa drought of 1984 did not produce famine in Somalia, while the Ethiopian population was devastated. The latter country suffered famine because the military government of the time was engaged in a civil war, and did not come to the rescue of its people.
Ten years earlier, in the mid-1970s, there was a prolonged drought, known as “dabadeer” ["the long-tailed"], in several parts of Somalia. Fortunately, this drought did not lead to mass starvation because the Somali government moved quickly to assist the people. They mobilised the population and sought the assistance of international allies to deliver food and water to the needy.
Somalia’s last major famine was in 1992 and was not caused by drought. Nearly 300,000 innocent people starved to death because of sectarian politics.
More from Professor Abdi Ismail Samatar here..
Jessica Brown
Filed under Weekly Blog
Quick Link: Mohamed On the Crisis in Somalia
Take the time to read this amazing interview by the Leader-Post with Mohamed Hassan on the crisis in Somalia, and what it means for all of those people now fleeing to Dadaab refugee camp.
Mohamed Hassan, now 22, left the camp for the first time last year, as the World University Service of Canada sponsored him to come to Canada. Though it is a dream come true, the accounting student said it’s hard to focus on school because he’s so worried about his family. A famine in East Africa is drawing 1,300 refugees every day to the camp, so resources that were always in demand are increasingly scarce.
Filed under Quick Link
Dadaab Refugee Camp: In the News, and a Response From WUSC Regina Sponsored Student Mohamed Hassan
In response to: World’s Biggest Refugee Camp Full: Report and Dadaab Refugee Camp is a City That Shouldn’t Exist
WUSC Regina sponsored student, Mohamed Hassan, on his life in Dadaab refugee camp and his take on the news coming from Dadaab in recent weeks.
As many of you may have read or heard before, Dadaab is the biggest and oldest refugee camp in the world. That is where I grew up, I dedicate all my life’s achievements to it, because the difficulties I encountered as a growing young refugee boy made me who I am today. After the break up of the civil war in my home country, Somalia, in 1991, my family and I fled to Kenya and was settled in one of the three camps in Dadaab called Dagahaley. By then I was an infant and I spent almost my entire life (19 years) in Dadaab and my family is still there to date. Apart from being a Canadian Permanent Resident, I don not have any identity or nationality to claim, you should not be surprised if I call myself a Dadaabian, because that is where I trace all my lifetime experiences; failures, achievements, joy, sorrow, hunger and suffering.
Having seen a lot of hardships in my life, I was always enthusiastic and never gave up in my studies. That is what made me come here. Being one of the best students in my camp, I got sponsored by World University Services of Canada (WUSC). This gave me opportunities I always yearned for. It gave me the only hope in my life to get out of the hardships I was always in. Now I have the chance to pursue my accounting degree and work hard to get to the next level in my life. Right now, I am only worried about my family who are in the middle of hardships. This makes me loose focus, but, I hope one day I will get well-wishers to sponsor my family and bring them here. By then I will have nothing to worry about and my life will be complete.
The situation in my camp is getting worse time after time. Due to its close proximity to the Kenya/Somalia border and the continuous chaos in my country, more and more refugees keep moving into it. Thus, the camp which was originally intended to be settled by 90 000 refugees is now holding up to 350 000 refugees and many more are coming to it. The humanitarian agencies working there are asking for help as they do not have the capacity to support all the people. Many new refugees come to Dadaab and end up not getting food and shelter for more than a month.
The security cases in Dadaab have increased significantly in the previous years. Many new-comers who do not have basic necessities tend to use violence to get food and shelter. They attack the other refugees who stayed in the camp longer and take away food and any valuable thing they come across. It is not their fault, they are doing all things to make sure they survive because they do not get support from the UN and other agencies who in turn face shortages. Besides that, many of the youth who finish high schools and do not get the opportunities to further studies or jobs go back to Somalia and join the armed militias who are destroying our nation.
The mismanagement of funds and corrupted bosses of many of the humanitarian agencies in Dadaab also plays a big role in intensifying the suffering of the refugees. For instance, several countries like the USA, Canada and Australia provide the long time refugees (those who stayed in the camp since 1992 like my family) with the option to get resettled in those countries. But it happens that many of the deserving people do not get the opportunities to come to these countries. Instead, some wealthy people, who stayed in the camp for less than a year, pay money and end up going to Canada, USA and Australia. I wish Transparency International had an office in Dadaab; many people would be sued and the victimized refugees would get their rights back.
Mohamed Hassan
Sponsored Student
WUSC Regina
Filed under Weekly Blog
