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Somalia

Somalia: Interagency Rapid Assessment Report: Dharkenley Evictions (March 2015)

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Executive Summary

3500 HHs were forcibly evicted from Maslah and Aslubta of Dharkenley district in Mogadishu between 3 and 5th March 2015. The majority of the evictees fled to settlements in the area between K11-K20. In response to these forced evictions, the Protection Cluster called an adhoc operational meeting to prepare the roll out and pilot of post-eviction assessment tool. The overall coordination of the assessment was by the Protection Cluster, while NRC was leading the operational roll out.

Fourteen humanitarian agencies (1 UN agency, 6 INGOs and 7 local NGOs) took part in this two day assessment: UNHCR, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Save the Children (SCI), Mercy Corps, Danish Refugee Council (DRC), INTERSOS, CARE, HINNA, SOHDA, OSPAD, ZAMZAM,
SSWC, DBG and CPD. The sample frame covered evicted populations residing between K11-K20, and the sample taken included 346HH surveys, 6 key informant interviews and 39 focus groups. The assessment covered eviction-process related information as well as information on the current humanitarian protection situation of forcibly evicted IDPs. The following are key findings:

  • 35% reported having been exposed to violence that was used to enforce the evictions. Among them, 9% sustained injuries during the eviction process. Intimidation and threats were also used during the eviction, predominantly by those manning the bull dozers used in the process.
    Also, 37% of the respondents reported the destruction of their personal belongings during the eviction.

  • The forced eviction was enforced without adequate notice period. Only 39% of the respondents had received a notice with a period of 2 days.

  • Security of land tenure is an immediate protection need of the evicted IDPs in KM11-KM20 as most of the respondents reported to continue to be at risk of forced evictions due to the lack of land titles or rent agreements to occupy the land despite paying a fee of $3000 per community.

  • 51% of the households were female headed while 49% were male headed. The majority of female-headed HHs had more than three minors under their care, while being the bread winners at the same time. Their disrupted livelihoods increase the vulnerability of the femaleheaded HHs and their children.

  • The evicted households have humanitarian needs for water and sanitation, food, shelter and NFIs, health, nutrition, protection and education requiring a multi-cluster response.

    • 56% of the beneficiaries lacked access to shelter
    • 80% lacked access to water and sanitation, notably access to safe water and latrines. Public defecation was observed during the assessment. Unable to access clean water in their current location, IDPs have to trek long distances to obtain water at a fee of 2 Somali shilling per 20 litre jerry can. Lack of WASH facilities exposes children to protection risks as they are used to obtain the water and places women at risk of sexual and gender based violence in the course of fetching water and the use of improvised sanitation facilities.
    • 71% lacked access to food due to the disruption and consecutive loss of livelihoods due to the forced evictions. Shops, kiosks, vending, small businesses and casual labour were disrupted resulting in increased food prices driven by the limited supply from the disrupted businesses.
    • Nutrition was a concern and 43% of the respondents mentioned that children previously receiving nutritional support at Maslah were unable to access similar services at the new locations due to the lack of a nutrition center at the location.
    • The forced eviction resulted in the loss of access to health facilities, which also impacts on referral mechanisms for protection concerns. 60% of the respondents indicated a lack of access to health services in their new location.
    • Education is not accessible in the new locations. Existing schools are located too far for students to access them.