‘Silence No More (Aamusnaan Maya)’ Assessing Responses and Needs of Digaale Internally Displaced Persons Camp at the Outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic
A field-based assessment of Digaale IDP camp reveals how COVID-19 compounded climate-driven displacement, exposing critical gaps in food security, health services, and institutional response in Somaliland.
Abstract
Somaliland is already significantly impacted by climate change and yet there has been little sustained media attention on the enormous issues facing its population as a result. Most notably, as of 2018, and as a direct result of climate change, there were 150,000 Somalilanders occupying internally displaced camps around its capital city, Hargeisa, and the majority of Somaliland’s population are in the midst of losing their pastoral culture and livelihoods. 1 SomAct is a local organisation based in Hargeisa, advocating to amplify the voices of vulnerable communities in Somaliland. With the Third Generation Project, Som-Act led the GCRF-funded project ‘Breaking the 4th Wall of Climate Migration: Developing Policy and Education Capacity of Local Climate Justice Organizations’. Key to this project was the participation of Transparency Solutions, an organisation that specialises in delivering Somali-led transformative, sustainable and positive change throughout the Horn of Africa region. During that project the three organisations worked together with residents of Digaale IDP camp, opening up a working relationship and the opportunity to collaborate with them in facilitating this study.
Keywords
- Somaliland; internally displaced persons camp; maya; COVID-19 pandemic; climate change; Hargeisa; media attention; work relationships; Horn of Africa; pastoral culture; vulnerable communities; Africa region; Somali; pastoral livelihoods; climate migration; climate justice; local climate