A Somali refugee who lived through a deadly civil war and famine which killed hundreds of thousand of people has called for a renewed public focus on rebuilding the war-torn country.
Ahmed Tohow, who is a representative of the Global Somali Diaspora — an advocacy group representing Somali communities living abroad — worked for the Red Cross and the United Nations in the capital Mogadishu in the early 1990s, when 990 Australian Defence Force personnel were deployed to the country.
He praised the UN peacekeeping mission which was launched in Somalia in July 1992 after an estimated 300,000 people were killed.
Prior to the peacekeeping mission, Mr Tohow surveyed living conditions in Baidoa, dubbed the ‘City of Death’ by foreign journalists.
Ahmed Tohow wearing a suit with a pink shirt and tie
PHOTO: Ahmed Tohow is hopeful of more Australian public attention on efforts to rebuild Somalia following decades of conflict. (Supplied: Ahmed Tohow)
“I’ve seen a lot of people burying other people who were still alive, waiting to die,” he said.
“Our job was to take off the street those people who died and I couldn’t cope.”
In November 1992, the US announced it would lead a force of 37,000 personnel, including 990 Australians, to enable the distribution of humanitarian aid with the UN mandate to use “all necessary means”.
“People slowly, gradually, got food and started having some kind of hope. Hospitals were built by the peacekeepers and they did some sort of education to get people back on to farms,” Mr Tohow said.