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28,000 Displaced Families to Be Resettled
The East African Standard
March 27, 2005
The Government yesterday said it would resettle 28,500 families displaced in the clash-torn Mandera District.
The families, mostly made up of elderly women and children, were displaced from Mandera Central constituency on New Year's eve following an eruption of inter-clan fighting between rival Somali clans, which has so far claimed at least 60 lives.
Speaking to The Sunday Standard in Mandera town, local DC Kimani Waweru said internally displaced families should not live in deplorable conditions when rival clan elders had already agreed to co-exist.
The DC said the resettlement program would run simultaneously with the ongoing disarmament process, which has so far yielded the surrender of 21 firearms to the authorities.
The firearms, mainly AK-47 and G3 assault rifles, were recovered from Elwak, Wargadud, Lafey and Damasa, but security sources said thousands of illicit firearms were still be in the wrong hands.
He said some of the displaced persons who had previously fled to neighbouring Ethiopia and Somalia had returned to the district in readiness for resettlement in their original homes.
However, Garre elders at a reconciliation meeting in Mandera town cautioned the Government against immediate resettlement of the displaced persons until the tension sparked by the three months of fighting subsides.
"How do you expect a person who lost his entire family just 12 days ago in El-Golicha to live peacefully with a person from the community which he suspects masterminded the massacre?" an emotional Garre elder posed.
Waweru said the Government had set up a mobile police post at the disputed watering point to ensure that all pastoralist communities had access to it without intimidation from clan militiamen.
He cited Gabibar, Yabicho, Wante and Shimbri Fatuma as some of the watering sites where mobile police posts were set up following the latest killings.
A week ago, the government gave the fighting clans a 21-day ultimatum to surrender illicit firearms to security personnel in the area.
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