Somali refugees count Eid blessings

Dolo: As she celebrated the Eid Al Fitr holiday, Somali mother Quresho Mahmoud Dahir counted her blessings: all her children were alive. They had food. They were safe.

"We will eat very well today," she said proudly, gesturing at the food rations she received on Tuesday morning.

Her 12-year-old daughter sat protectively atop the two sacks of corn and the beans her mother was going to prepare.

Dahir is one of hundreds of thousands of Somalis forced to flee their homes by war and famine. She and her six children, the youngest only three years old, walked 12 days to get to this United Nations-run camp on the Ethiopia-Somali border after her husband disappeared after some fighting in their area.

Some days they were so hungry they ate leaves from trees. At night, she agonised over lighting a fire; it would protect her children from hyenas but might attract criminals or militias.

Finally, sick, starving and exhausted, they stumbled into Dolo, a wind-swept outpost of brushwood buildings scattered among the twisted thorn trees and red sand.

Ragged shelter

Now the seven of them live in a ragged shelter made of plastic scraps and torn clothing stretched over branches. They depend on donors for everything from cooking pots to sleeping mats to food.

Dahir remembers past years when she used to mark Eid by slaughtering her own goats, having a feast for friends and family and giving charity to her poorer neighbours. But she said this year she will cook her donated rations gladly, and give thanks for the kindness of the people that let her family survive a famine that has already claimed tens of thousands of lives.

"Thank Allah that we were welcomed here and given food and we are safe," she said, squatting in their makeshift shelter. "We are blessed. So many people helped us along the way."

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