Eyewitness: 'We are living in the trees'

Somali refugee Rashid Abdi Ibrahim, 32, tells how he, his family and thousands of others in and around Ifo camp near Dadaab are homeless and living in trees since catastrophic floods hit eastern Kenya.

Rashid Abdi Ibrahim has been a resident of Ifo camp since 1991. He is married with two young children.

Some 80,000 Somali refugees are affected by the floods

We didn't have much but now we have nothing. And no-one is helping us at all.

We don't have food, we don't have clean water, we don't have medicine, we don't have shelter.

The rain is our problem - the floods began on the 12 November and still keep coming.

Of the thousands of houses in Ifo camp, about 95% have been destroyed. They were built from sticks and mud and couldn't withstand the water.

All the latrines in the camp were also washed away and now diarrhoea has started... which is not a surprise - the water is mixed with the mess, everything all together.

In some places the water is still very high.

I am walking in the water now and it is up to my stomach and it is flowing strongly.

Any children under 15 cannot walk here - the water is too much for them and for the elders.

Afraid

I saw an old woman being pushed in a wheelbarrow because she was so weak and sick. She had not eaten for a long time.

Most of the people have migrated into the bush, 15km south of the camp. They started moving on the 13 November and so some have now been living in the bush for a week.

Everyone is looking sick. Many feel useless - some cannot even go for a walk because they are so very weak.

We are living in the trees.

Hyenas and snakes have been attacking us and so we are up in the trees.

The children, the women and even the men are in the trees to get out of the wild animals' reach. We sleep at night in the trees.

New babies are not receiving the help that they need. Mothers are not, nor children. None of us are.

The hospital is full of water.

Even now we are thinking that more rain is coming.

When you look up to the sky, you can see it coming.

People are afraid. We are worried.

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