Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 17-06-2017
After spending a few days in Mogadishu reporting on the distribution of food aid by NGO The Al-Imdaad Foundation, the mission moves to a city called Baidoa in the northwest of Somalia.
No doubt last weeks incident in which five people were killed in a crossfire between two groups of government soldiers when fighting broke out during the distribution of relief food will be at the back of the minds of the Al Imdaad team and journalists accompanying them.
While we’ve been told that the trip to Baidoa would be hotter, harder and more tough, the desire to assist those less fortunate and dying of hunger supersedes any fear or reservations we may have.
The Baidoa incident happened in the afternoon at a site where food aid was being distributed to people displaced by drought earlier this year.
A 45-minute journey by plane, Baidoa is about 245 km northwest of Mogadishu, which has seen thousands of people streaming into the city and other Somali cities in search of food and support, overwhelming local and international aid agencies.
Baidoa hosts one of the largest populations of displaced people, with more than 142,000 recorded as of mid-May, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The majority of those displaced in Baidoa are children and teens
Somalia is one of four countries singled out by the UN in a $4.4bn aid appeal to avert catastrophic hunger and famine, along with Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.
The UN has said that together they make up the world’s largest humanitarian disaster in more than 70 years.
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