On Thursday 04 April 2024 in Mogadishu members of the Persons with Disabilities PWDs and the Disabled People Organizations DPOs made the statement after a Meeting held in the office of the SDN Somali disability network. The meeting is participated by the representatives of 5 organizations of the PWDs based in Mogadishu Banadir region members of the Somali Disability Network an inclusion consortium with membership of 15 organizations most of them DPOs
Somalia is one of the most risky places in the world for Mines, Explosive Remnants of War ERW, IED improvised explosive devices, and suicide bomb attacks which happen sometimes in public and private and collectively the death, wounds, and destruction of properties. Deadly attacks that risk the lives of civilians. Besides gunshots in armed conflict cause a similar legacy.
Somalia is a country with a fragile state struggling the state-building and peace-making. The hundreds of people suffering damage from the mine and EID ends without support and care. That leads to many victims dead, amputated, Paralyzed, and loss of sensory vision or hearing. Victims without rights and care may end up hapless persons in a society that depends on the care of their families who may not cover mostly the expensive cost of emergency support, treatment, operations, habilitation, and mobility support assistive materials.
In Somalia, there are no tangible interventions existing on the ground in the region both urban and non-urban. The local and international agencies working on the mine action invest huge the mine clearing and training the government personnel. No more interventions for the VA awareness. The people who are victims of weapons end up in nightmares for the future some die for preventable care and treatment
Therefore, the participants of the meeting realized the need to make the call to action to the international donors national civil society, and the government of Somalia.
- The number of accidents and cases of victims caused by land mines and EID is high in number in Somalia. Both in the urban and non-urban areas.
- The prevention mechanism of the causes of land mines and EIDs is very low compared to the situation on the ground in the urban and non-urban areas in Somalia. Where risk is imminent everywhere at any time regardless of government and civilians.
- The interventions for the VA the mine and EID risk prevention and awareness education have been declining in the last years for the public and private places in Somalia in the urban and non-urban areas.
- The response for the victims people in the emergency and post-emergency is neglected and denied in the humanitarian aid Somalia for the children, youth, and adults. Respectively the most vulnerable people in the IDP camps, rural areas, and urban areas.
- The support of the victim persons the accident trauma counseling, health care, social integration, and support assistive materials for mobility is very law intervention in the urban and non-urban areas in Somalia
- The cooperation with PWDs and DPOs for the VA works in Somalia is excluded and partnered with people and organizations without proper experience for the situation response and reaction in Somalia. A country with decades of civil wars, poverty, and scarcity of public health care services.
Mainstreaming the VA in disability inclusion and increased participation of the PWDs experts and the DPO’s potential to respond and react in the short term and the long time is very important and needs attention and consideration i