Somalia’s Community Leaders Deliver Water to IDPs

IRIN – Community leaders in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, are filling the gaps in aid distribution by raising funds to assist thousands displaced by fighting, leaders said.

“We started last week and we did it because we see the plight of the displaced every day,” Sheikh Abdifatah Aweys, a religious leader, told IRIN on 9 February. “For now we are addressing the most pressing problem, and that is water.”

Aweys said their efforts were not meant to replace aid agencies who were absent on the ground at present: “We know we cannot cover everything, so we are doing what we can. These are our people and our religion dictates that you help those less fortunate.”

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