By Osman Hassan
Associated Press Writer
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP)
-- Hundreds of leprosy victims, some of whom had to be carried
in wheelbarrows, are among thousands of people being forced
to flee their homes because of floods devastating parts
of southern Somalia, a local official said Friday.
Since
the beginning of this week, more than 60 villages and 150,000
people have been seriously affected by the floods in Lower
Juba and Middle Juba regions. Two of the evacuated villages
were home to nearly 1,000 leprosy victims, said Hashi Siad
Sabriyeh, council chairman in Faragurow, one of the villages.
The
leprosy victims living in Faragurow and neighboring Labo-Dad
were put in the villages by the regime of Mohamed Siad Barre
in the 1980s for ''quarantine,'' Sabriyeh said.
Two
of the sufferers there have died in the last four days,
said Sabriyeh, who also has leprosy.
''I
am afraid the death rate will increase dramatically if the
situation does not improve,'' he said in a VHF radio interview
from Jilib town in Middle Juba region, 185 miles south of
Mogadishu. ''We don't even have the basic food items, let
alone medicine or shelter.''
The
leprosy victims, who were left alone in their villages and
survived as small-scale farmers, have been moved to Jilib,
three miles from the town, he said. Some 380 of them --
unable to walk because of the effects of the disease --
had to be carried in wheelbarrows and carts drawn by donkeys.
Leprosy
is a progressive, infectious disease that can cause skin
ulcers and deformities such as claw hand. Malnutrition can
increase susceptibility to the disease, and its victims
are often stigmatized and shunned by society.
Authorities
in Jilib have already expressed concern about the sudden
influx of leprosy sufferers.
''We
don't even have enough doctors and nurses to give advice
to people against leprosy,'' said Mohamud Ahmed Gulu, an
elder in Jilib.
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