By Mustapha Jarju
Hundreds of people internally displaced by recent clashes between Senegalese troops and MFDC rebels have highlighted food and shelter as their major problems.
The Voice Newspaper’s reporter who spoke to the displaced people and their hosts about their conditions has observed that dozens of the refugees who are children and women are spending the nights under verandas with limited clothing and food.
As monitored, they are spending the nights sleeping under verandas, as they borrowed cloths from their hosts and relatives in the village and are entirely depending on them for feeding.
A village head of Batabutu Kantora disclosed that more than two hundred people have fled into the village, “one of the compounds is hosting more than thirty (30) internally displaced persons and another compound hosting 20 individuals.”
Isatou Badjie, a native of the village said her home is hosting more than thirty individuals from Suwole village, Foni.
“We are responsible for their feeding and clothing and many of them are women and children. And since my husband passed away years back, I take over his responsibility by going inside the Bush, fall down trees, sell them to get money to feed my family and these thirty individuals that I am currently hosting, it is really hard with me,” Madam Badjie explained.
According to her, her family members have to share some of their clothes with the displaced people because they came with no enough clothes.
Marie Nyass, who fled Gilanfari in Foni said “I am really traumatized, as you can see how weak my body is, I am someone who has weight but because of trauma and panic I am going through I’m losing weight.”
“We left our belonging and clothing in our village since the war between the rebels and the Senegalese soldiers started and is getting over one week. We still cannot do anything for ourselves than to depend on one person for our feeding and clothing. I spend every night under this veranda (pointing to it) since that Sunday when this fight started,” she said with confusion, as she shared are experience on the ongoing issue with this reporter in Batabutu Village.
Kumba Gibba, who also fled explained from her village, too, explained that “my child was sleeping when we heard gun sounds which shaken our houses started. We got terrified and it woke up my child and got sick since then (she started crying). He’s not eating food and my breast milk is not much, so he cries always especially at nights without sleeping. I always tie him in my back.”
