Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 18-06-2017
The northwest city of Baidoa in Somalia has evaded us but not escaped.
One way or another the Al-Imdaad Foundation team along with myself and fellow journalist Azhar Vadi was going to get there one way or another to distribute food aid and report on the campaign.
Yesterday posed a number of challenges and while we traversed the plethora of security checkpoints all the while being flung around while driving on the bumpy road, we never reached the finish line.
We are hoping that this will not be the case today. We are ready for the sniffer dogs, the many security checks and hopefully will overcome the challenges Insha’Allah to reach our goal of providing relief aid.
Due to the cancellation of a flight to Baidoa yesterday because it was deemed there were too “little” passengers to charter, organizers have hired a private plane which is much more expensive than what was initially planned for.
However most disappointing was that we have lost an extra day in Baidoa. The hours spent at the airport and the return to the hotel is precious time we could have put to good use in the humanitarian effort.
Nonetheless Allah is the best of planners and He knows best.
We have been advised that we will be departing in the early hours of this morning for Baidoa and I must admit the Al-Imdaad team and I are truly excited that the mission has come to fruition.
A 45-minute journey by plane, Baidoa is about 245 km northwest of Mogadishu and literally impossible to drive given the condition of the road, not to mention it being Al-Shabaab territory.
We’ve been told danger levels are extremely high and that aid distribution must be completed before sunset as the risk of an attack becomes imminent.
As a matter of fact even the pilot who will be escorting us will be sitting in the plane after we land so we could leave at a moments notice should something happen.
So while we will be spending a total of five hours or more in Baidoa, we are hoping that the little time we have would be enough to make a difference to the thousands of people who have been streaming into the city in search of food and support.
There are elements of fear about the mission, but the greatest fear is not being able to assist someone who is hungry…That is a tragedy.
0 Comments