Baidoa

 (Still catching up. Going back to the third week of September.)

Not long after my previous trip to Somalia, and loads of meetings in Nairobi, it was time to return again. This time I would be going to Baidoa, a place I’d never been given we just opened an office there just prior to me going on vacation in July.

Baidoa is not an easy place to work. The city is completely surrounded by non-government held territory, though the city itself is reasonably safe. But if you venture out 10-15 km. in any direction, the security situation significantly deteriorates.

the modest international airport

rare view for a foreigner - from a tower looking out over non-govt.-held territory

Unfortunately, it’s the epicenter of the drought in Somalia. It’s an historically underserved population due in large part to its inaccessibility. Though people can get in and out by road by paying tolls to militants, for the most part everything we do needs to be airlifted in as if it were an island. From a supply chain standpoint, it’s sort of a nightmare given that shipments by air (for medical supplies and nutritional feeding supplements for example) are very expensive. 

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The city has an interesting history. A colleague I was traveling with said that her parents used to go there for long weekends prior to the civil war. It is generally cooler than the coast and was very prosperous. Back then it had the largest camel population in Somalia (over 1.3 million – more camels than people). Nowadays things are obviously different. On this trip, I didn’t even see one – the first of my travels to Somalia without seeing a camel (though I did consume some).

In the early stages of the civil war (early 1990s), Baidoa was ravaged by repeated attacks and changed hands several times. Meanwhile, the situation in Mogadishu was even worse. The government temporarily established itself Baidoa which, by this time, had become more stable. By 2007, with Islamists pushed out, the capital shifted back to Mogadishu. Though Baidoa was retaken by Islamists the following year, it was eventually liberated in 2012 and has remained in government hands since. Though the three main arteries leading into the city are not controlled by the government, the city itself is.

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For the work I do, Baidoa has been important. The region has notoriously been the hardest hit by the repeated droughts, including the famine in 2011 and the near-famine conditions we battled in 2017 soon after I joined the country program. I/we realized that we needed a base there and we would need to figure out a way to start up operations there (find resources). In the end, we did and we proceeded to scale up quickly. In a few busy months we had a new office, staff, partner organizations and several million dollars in funding to respond to the drought. 

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My trip involved a combination of meetings with local government officials as well as several visits to the seemingly endless encampments of those who have been displaced by drought and/or conflict. Hundreds of thousands of people are packed into a few square kilometers, most of whom are in desperate need of support.

I must say, it’s hard to fathom the magnitude of the crisis. In addition to those impacted by drought, a surprising number of those in makeshift housing are conflict displaced. Sometimes it’s a combination of drought and conflict forcing people from their homes. Most had come from long distances. Some on foot. Some on donkey carts. They congregate in places like Baidoa because they know that aid is being provided. Most are in contact with others from their communities before they come and then seek out them out when they arrive. It’s much easier to have clan/family ties in order to be received without issues and get some immediate help.

thankfully, this nutrition screening facility has been replaced by the structure below

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After a couple of days, it was time to return to Mogadishu. We drove from the office to the airport. There are multiple perimeters of security as you approach and you need to navigate each one separately. There’s always some shouting, hand gestures, etc. as each side demonstrates their authority – us making the case why we need to get through and the other side making the case why we’re not allowed. It’s the same thing at almost every checkpoint in the country. Nine times out of ten, we eventually get through successfully. One would think that with a flight booking, there ought to be a way to do this more easily. But the tug-of-war does serve a purpose. Over the course of the shouting/gesturing, it buys time for the security forces to observe us and assess the probability of risk. And with high frequency of attacks, the security forces do need to take their jobs seriously.

The first perimeter security/boom gate is the local police, followed by the national army. The inner checkpoint is the Africa Union, the international forces that are in Somalia to assist the government with security and assist in building their capacity. The team assigned to Baidoa is Ethiopian. I’ve heard stories that they can be particularly challenging but on this occasion, we didn’t have any issues.

sunset view from my room in Baidoa

After all this, there’s yet another security check as you approach the airport itself. On this occasion, the conveyor belt/x-ray thing was not operational (it was the same the next time I traveled there so it could be that it never works) so it served as a table for security to basically dump the bags’ contents and rifle though peoples’ underwear and cosmetics. Always interesting to have your stuff exposed to other travelers. Mine wasn’t nearly as interesting as some of the things I saw coming out of other people’s bags.

We walked across the dirt open space between security and the “terminal” which was basically the size of a three-bedroom house. Once inside, I was escorted to the VIP room. I’m not really a VIP (usually reserved for government officials) but I guess because I was a foreigner, I was allowed in. To be honest, the chairs were comfortable and there’s the “separation from the masses” that some enjoy, but it wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. There’s no food, no internet and the loo wasn’t even operational – possibly my primary motivation for being in the lounge given the rather warlike conditions of the men’s room in the main area.

After a considerable wait, we were off to Mogadishu. The flight is less than an hour, mostly over non-government held territory. Our armored vehicle was waiting for us and the transition to the office was rather smooth. I would return to Nairobi the following day. A lot of travel these days. Not likely to slow down between now and the holidays.