Somalia Child Charity partly evacuates after death
04/12/2007
After a heavy bombardment from Ethiopian and Somali government forces in the area around the SOS Children's Village Mogadishu, in which the village was hit by two large land based missiles, the families are now leaving the children's village for the relative safety of other parts of Mogadishu. Already five families have been evacuated and, according to Ahmed Ibrahim, director of SOS Children Somalia, the remaining families should be out by this afternoon.
Yesterday's bombardment was the worst yet experienced by the children, mothers and staff of the SOS Children's Village Mogadishu. The missiles used were much larger than in the past and caused much more damage. Although all the children and youth fled to the reinforced bunker at the first sign of fighting, some of the mothers and aunts, concerned about everyday tasks, left the safety of the bunker to return to their houses. While the mother from one house was alone in her house it was hit by a missile and she was seriously injured. She underwent surgery at the Red Cross Hospital but is still in intensive care. At the same time, another carer was caught by a missile explosion while outside the bunker and was killed. Three other staff were seriously injured.
Ahmed Ibrahim says that the situation is now so bad that he cannot predict when, if ever, the families will return. He is also concerned for the safety of staff and is planning accordingly. The School, with over 500 students, and the SOS Kindergarten are currently closed for holidays and the SOS Hospital is functioning with a skeleton staff.
Helping Children in Somalia for decades
SOS Children has been active in Somalia since the middle of the 1980s. An SOS Children's Village, a kindergarten, youth home and school for around 350 children are located in the south of Mogadishu. Despite heavy fighting and the complete chaos around the city following the outbreak of civil war in 1991, SOS Children continued its work at a time when almost all the other aid organisations had left the country.
The large aid and food programme that was launched at that time gradually became a permanent facility which includes a mother and child clinic, a paediatric unit and a food programme. Every year there are around 300,000 people treated. ECHO and the United Nations World Food Programme are now also supporting these SOS projects.
SOS Children facilities have been caught up in the conflict again and again over the past years. During the heavy fighting in Mogadishu in April this year, parts of the SOS Children's Village and a hospital ward full of wounded people were shelled.
Relevant Countries: Somalia.