President Mohamud says Al Shabaab pushing farmers to IDP camps

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Thursday June 2, 2022

Baidoa (HOL) - Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has blamed Al-Shabaab militants for forcing people in Baidoa to beg and rely on humanitarian aid by refusing them to farm.

Speaking at an event in Badioa on Thursday night, the president said the militants had forced people to give up farming if they did not pay an extortion fee.

Together with Southwest state president Abdiaziz Laftagaren, Mohamud visited the drought-stricken areas in Baidoa, where he listened to the IDPs and how the drought-affected them. The president was filmed entering the internally displaced people's houses and interacting with the children.

"People with dignity, honour, free and proud of their environment, have been forced to rely on humanitarian aid for fear of endangering themselves and their children," he said during the trip to the IDP camp in Baidoa, the interim capital of Southwest regional state.

President Hassan Sheikh said the only way for Somalia is to fight al-Shabaab to restore the dignity of the Somali people.

President Mohamud was accompanied by Somalia's Special Envoy for Drought Response, Abdirahman Abdishakur, who the Hassan Sheikh Mohamud appointed in late May, and the UN's newly-appointed Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Adam Abdelmoula.

Abdelmoula warned of the devastating outlook for millions of affected Somalis amidst heightened risks of famine during his first field visit.

"The situation is extremely dire and grim: 7.1 million people will be affected by this drought situation before the end of this year," said the Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Adam Abdelmoula.

"Unfortunately, about 1.4 million children are facing acute malnutrition this year, and 330,000 are likely to become severely malnourished," he added.

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