Baidoa, a major city in South West State in Somalia, currently accommodates one of the largest populations of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) within the country. As of August 2020, there were 59,921 displaced families living on 514 informal settlements in and around Baidoa, and numbers continue to grow due to conflict and natural hazards.
Risks of eviction
While some displaced groups manage to purchase small plots of land around the outskirts of the town, tens of thousands of displaced families live on private land without secure tenure agreements and facing imminent risk of eviction.
To provide a longer-term solution to displacement and mitigate the growing risk of eviction in rapidly urbanizing Baidoa, in early 2018, the government of South West State allocated public land to relocate displaced families facing the highest risk of eviction. By late 2018, a plan to develop the site and a relocation procedure were drafted and endorsed with the District Commissioner and Governor officially opening the project.
Through the project, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), together with different partners coordinated the development of the site, involving the community from the beginning to ensure they took part in the design and planning of what was meant to be their new home.
The new site was named Barwaaqo – meaning ‘prosperity’ in the local language.
It is located 7 km north of Baidoa town centre and consists of 306 hectares of land with the capacity to host more than 48,000 people.
Roads, streetlights, a school, two police stations, a health centre, latrines, and sustainable water systems were built.
To ensure a fair and transparent selection of the IDPs who would be relocated, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Housing Land and Property (HLP) and the Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) partners conducted an eviction risk assessment across all the informal settlements of Baidoa. This revealed that 49 out of 391 IDP sites were at high risk of eviction.
Some 2,000 families have since been relocated to the new site.
Each family received cash assistance and a plot of land with garden area to build their new shelters. To avoid relocated families selling plots and risking further evictions, residents were made aware that they cannot receive title deeds until they have completed two years of resettlement.
Barlin and her children are one of the families who were relocated to Barwaqo.
"We were always worried when we will be evicted."
Read her story: Finding Durable Solutions to Somalia’s Internal Displacement
