16, Jan 2018 | CJP Team

The Guardian reported that Somali security forces “destroyed” 23 camps that were home to more than 4,000 internally displaced Somalis in late December 2017, according to the United Nations. Two weeks following this, these families “are still living rough in the outskirts of Mogadishu,” the Guardian said. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said schools, latrines, health, sanitation and water facilities were destroyed, all of which reportedly cost more than $200,000 of donor funds. According to the Guardian, “Witnesses say the police and military personnel involved in the clearances beat up anyone who tried to resist or question them,” later adding that aid workers and reporters were not permitted to film the demolition. The district commissioner of Kahda, where the camps were torn down, told the Guardian that “the eviction was done for the safety of the IDPs since the area they settled was a disputed private land and the eviction order was issued by a High Court, although there was not a proper notice and it was not well coordinated.” An aid worker told the Guardian that people could not return to the camps “because the police are still there, guarding the emptied settlements”.