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© UNHCR/ B. Bannon
Since May 2009, renewed fighting in Mogadishu has pushed more than a quarter of a million people to flee. Many have sought refuge and relative safety in the Puntland region but are confronted with very difficult living conditions in slum areas.

Displaced – but at least safe

“I slept a long sleep that I had missed for so long.”  For the first time for years, Ahmed Ali, a 20-year-old internally displaced Somali, managed to rest properly. He had arrived in the port of Bossasso with his wife and two children, closing a painful chapter of his life in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

 Ahmed lost his parents at the start of Somalia’s civil war in 1991. He was brought up by his grandfather, who died earlier this year after being injured during renewed fighting in the capital.  "I cannot estimate how many relatives and neighbours I have lost in Mogadishu,” says Ahmed. “I think everyone in Mogadishu has lost at least one person or more, and every young man like me is suffering from depression, feels sadness and hopelessness.”

 After watching his beloved grandfather die a lingering death over three days, Ahmed decided to take his family and leave Mogadishu. They walked for hundreds of kilometres before reaching the relative safety of Puntland.

 After the violence of Mogadishu, peace of mind is paramount for Ahmed and his family. Despite lacking health care, sanitation and many other basics, he’s still able to say with a smile: “at least my life has changed because I have better security.”

 For this reason Ahmed now feels ready to move on with his life: “No matter how little I will earn, the type of work I will have, the poor shelter I will find, I have decided to rebuild my future.”