"I couldn't live in Mogadishu anymore, my whole family would have been killed eventually," said Osman, 25, who left Mogadishu three months ago, hours after identifying his mother's body. He begged a ride in a car with a crowd of strangers, holding up his daughters — age 2 and 4 — to persuade the driver.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said Wednesday that Somalia faces one of the world's worst crises along with Afghanistan, Iraq and Darfur.

"Dadaab represents a desperate cry, a cry of these people for peace in Somalia," Guterres said as he toured the camp, visiting medical clinics and speaking to refugees who live in ramshackle huts made of sticks and plastic tarp.

The population in Dadaab has reached nearly 200,000 people, packed into about 20 square miles of desolate, wind-swept dirt where little grows beneath the withering sun. Last year, more than 30,000 Somali refugees sought asylum here as their country saw some of the most deadly violence in its history.

Thousands of civilians have been killed in Somalia since 2007, caught in vicious disputes over ancient clan loyalties, religion and government. The country has not had an effective central government since 1991, when warlords toppled dictator Siad Barre and carved Somalia into armed camps ruled by clan law.

Somalia's shaky transitional administration was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but has failed to assert real control. After Islamic militants seized control of Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia, the government called in troops from Ethiopia in December 2006 to oust them.

An insurgency started soon afterward, and remains a potent and disruptive force. Rebels set land mines and attack police posts and the Ethiopian troops respond with deadly force, witnesses say.

The country also is facing a worsening humanitarian crisis aggravated by high global food prices and drought.

Dr. James Ndirangu, who works at a hospital in Dadaab, said the new arrivals display a range of problems — from malnutrition and psychosis to rape, torture and blast injuries.

"People come in with deformities," he said. "Missing eyes. Missing limbs."

He said mental health problems are rampant in the camp. He keeps a poster on the wall of the hospital detailing 10 danger signals of suicide.

"Loss of a loved one," reads one, "and a persistent wish to die."

Hassan, 14, was among several teenagers who said militiamen would troll around schools — sometimes even entering classrooms — to recruit boys as fighters.

"It happened twice a month," said Hassan, who came to Dadaab with her parents six months ago after armed men kidnapped two children from the school bus.

"The teachers couldn't stop them, because teachers can't stop a man with a gun," she said.

But while the camp is safer than lawless Mogadishu, Dadaab offers only the most meager existence. Designed to help desperate people survive, the camp was never meant to be a long-term home.

"Dadaab is my home, but it's a prison, too," said Hakimo Adow Sandur, an 18-year-old who came here in 1991. "I know this place was never meant to be permanent, but it is permanent for me."

Many longtime refugees lament the fact that they cannot leave the camp to make a life in Kenya. The government has strict rules requiring them to stay, arguing that integration into Kenyan life is not a "durable solution" for refugees.

There are schools here, but only 4 percent of teachers are professionally trained. There is approximately one latrine for every 20 people. Materials such as tarps and mud bricks, used to build shelters, are distributed to new arrivals, but quickly degenerate in the sand and harsh sun.

Food, such as maize meal and vegetable oil, is doled out twice a month.

Options for the future are limited.

Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, peered into a hut housing Fatuma Abbas Muse, 66, who came here in 1991 — the year the camp was established. He asked her to compare life in Somalia to life in Dadaab.

"Here, you fee

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Negotiations continue for the release of two nuns abducted by insurgent Somali militia at midnight on Nov. 9 from Kenya’s northern Mandera district near the Somali border. Pastor Alois Maina of Community Church in Mandera told Compass Direct News that the two nuns were being held in El-Haddah, Somalia, about 19 miles from the border. A pastor in Mandera who requested anonymity told Compass Direct News that Christian leaders were collaborating with village elders in both Kenya and Somalia to negotiate with the militia for the nuns’ release. “What we need at the moment is prayer,” said the pastor. View the full story on our website.        

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July 22, 2009

Dear Donna,    

Monday morning, al Shabaab Islamist militia shot to death Mohammed Sheikh Abdiraman, a Somali Christian convert, in a small village 62 miles north of the capital Mogadishu. Eyewitnesses told Compass News the Islamic extremists appeared to have been hunting Abdiraman, a convert from Islam, and when they found him they did not hesitate to kill him. 

Abdiraman was a the leader of an underground “cell group” of Christians and is survived by two children, ages 10 and 15.  His wife died three years ago due to illness. “We are very sad about this incident, and we also are not safe,” one eyewitness said. “Pray for us.” 

Intent on “cleansing” Somalia of all Christians, al Shabaab militia are monitoring converts from Islam, especially where Christian workers had previously provided aid.  Linked with Islamic extremist al Qaeda terrorists, al Shabaab rebels have mounted an armed effort to topple the current president’s Western-backed Transitional Federal Government with the intention of imposing sharia (Islamic law) throughout all of Somalia.

Reports of attacks against Christians and the enforcement of sharia law in Somalia are on the rise.  On July 1, Compass News reported that Islamic extremists beheaded two young boys because their Christian father refused to divulge information about a church leader. On June 25, Open Doors International reported that Somalia's hard-line al-Shabaab insurgents amputated a hand and a leg each of four teenagers found guilty of stealing mobile phones and other possessions.  This was the first incident of such amputations by the rebels who follow a strict version of sharia law.    

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