A Somali woman seeking refuge in Kampala, Uganda whose identity has been withheld for privacy reasons claims that she and her family are facing persecution due to her husband being Congolese. The woman fled the conflict in Somalia and settled in Nairobi, Kenya where she met her husband.

She states that the issues began in Nairobi, telling local reporters that “I could no longer live in Nairobi because I was facing persecution. I was sexually abused. I faced many problems. My husband was stabbed”.

The woman also claims that one of her children was poisoned inside a refugee camp by members of the Somali community which prompted her to camp outside the UNHCR office in Kampala for safety.

#Somalia refugee in Kampala #Uganda claims her baby poisoned by her own family who have been againat her marriage to a Congolese man. She relates the troubles she has grown through claiming it is linked to her marriage to a non-Somali pic.twitter.com/xsLAId13yw

— Radio Dalsan (@DalsanFM) September 13, 2019

The family are awaiting to be resettled in Canada but are uncertain of when the process will be finalized. They are requesting UNHCR to provide them with safe housing, as their current living conditions still put them at risk. The woman told local reporters “My daughters are two years and four years, they need to be in a warm place. The security here are chasing us, where do we go?”.

Canada is one of the world’s top resettlement countries. According to UNHCR data, in 2019 the agency put in 8,531 submissions for resettlement to Canada. Out of that number 5,120 people were successfully resettled.

*This article was originally posted on our previous website on 14th September 2019.