Somalia's Lost Generation

Many Somalis, especially the youth, are fleeing both fighting and poverty in their countries. (Reuters)

As Mohamed Hersi waits under an old verandah, he was once again reminiscing about his troubled home country Somalia and his desire to find a better life elsewhere.

"We believe we are a lost generation that is why we want to go out of this place," Hersi (not his real name) told IslamOnline.net.

The spindly 22-year-old has been yearning to get respite from the daily trouble in his home country.

"I wanted to rest from the burning conflict, I wanted to work and get paid and forget all about Somalia."

Hersi had fled both fighting and poverty in the capital Mogadishu.

"You can't imagine staying in Somalia where the future of many youth is gloomy. We have to escape the horrible living conditions back."

The Somali government has been battling against the militant Shehbab and Hezb al-Islam groups since May.

The fighting has left hundreds of civilians dead and hundreds of thousands of them displaced.

Many of the conflict- and drought-displaced Somalis trickle across the borders to neighboring Kenya.

The teeming Easleigh settlement, where life is extremely shaky, is home to thousands of Somalis who live in the most deplorable conditions.

Dreams

Early in 2008, Hersi made his first attempt to cross into Kenya, the beginning and a vital starting point of the dangerous voyage to the South, as a refugee.

But Kenya, the most promising East African country, had nothing to offer this dispossessed youth.

"The situation in Nairobi is troublesome, nothing to eat, nowhere to sleep," he said.

"Everyday I'm sitting idle and waiting for some remittance from my mother in Mogadishu."

Over the last two years he repeatedly made attempts for better life in South Africa, a journey that has seen many like him go through the worst.

Last year, Hersi traveled from Kenya’s remote border hamlet of Lungalunga to South Africa in a long trek that has seen him passing several countries.

"I know crossing into South Africa is very dangerous, but I will have to die one day…I knew the journey is not easy, but I had to do it."

In the tangled bush between Botswana and South Africa, where wild animals lurk, his life was at risk.

"You will have to trek for long distances to cross the borders, because you have to escape the police," he explained.

"I know of a friend of mine who has since lost in the bush."

Though he was able to make it to his destination, Hersi did not find peace there.

"I stayed in South Africa for some three months hoping to cross to Europe but the possibility by then was so much minimal due to xenophobia against ethnic Somalis, I decided to come back to Kenya to try another route again."

Hersi still does not see his future any way in Africa.

"There is totally no point of staying here. Every day I wake up to think only about how I can get out of this situation to South Africa or to Europe."

So much of his time, money and mind have turned towards calculating how to flee the aggravating situation that has caught up with him.

"I just have to leave out Africa by all means. I am planning another journey soon, and hopefully I will make it."

For many young Somalis like Hersi, pursuing the dream of a better life away from Africa is a do or die situation.

"Everybody can see why we are ready to take this risk; it is just an issue of looking for livelihood."