Muna Isse, a single mother of five, lives with her family in a newly-erected makeshift tent made of simple straws and old clothes in the camps for the internally displaced people (IDP) on the outskirts of the Somali capital. 

by Abdurrahman Warsameh

They are desperate, tired and lack basic essentials as they left all they had in their home back in Mogadishu. They ran for their lives after renewed violence.

"We are lucky to have arrived here safe and sound. Although we were left destitute by the fighting, many could not make it here," Isse told Radio Netherland Worldwide (RNW), in the Elasha IDP camps, 20 km southwest of Mogadishu .

Isse is not alone in her plight. According to the UN, almost 23,000 civilians have also fled the restive Somali capital since the escalation in violence erupted late August between Islamist fighters and Somali government forces backed by African Union peacekeepers.

230 were killed and another 400 injured in the most fierce battles for months in Mogadishu, says the UN in its recent report on the escalating fighting in the coastal Somali capital.

Neighbours assisting
Isse says she relies on the support of the generous assistance by her new neighbours who gives her food and water and some utensils and clothing for her children. She says no aid agency is operating in the camps.

The camps have not had any assistance from relief organisations who withdrew from the country after Islamist groups banned their operations in areas under their control since late last year.

"We do not know how long these poor but charitable people can go assisting us because they themselves need help just like we do," Isse said.

The family has to make do with one meal a day in a small flimsy makeshift camp ten where sanitation and hygiene is dismal and where drinking water has not been available lately.

Traumatised
Isse's six-year-old daughter, Maryan is still traumatised by their ordeal during their escape from Mogadishu, says her mother. Some of the relatives were either killed or injured during the shelling their neighbourhood was subjected to by the warring sides.

"At night she wakes up screaming and keeps crying and asking for help against gunmen she says are trying to kill her. She sometimes has nightmares about people being killed and shells falling on her family," says Isse.

Almost 1.5 million people have already been staying at the Elasha camps for the past three years. They all went through the same ordeal after they were forced out of their homes because of fighting between Islamist rebels and Somali government forces backed by AU peacekeeping troops based in Mogadishu.

"This was the first time we left our home since the start of fighting in Mogadishu in 2007 and we really don't when or if ever we will be back home again," says Isse.