2 CHILDREN AND 3 DONKEYS KILLED IN MUDSLIDE IN MANDERA

BY ADOW JUBAT

Two children and three donkeys were killed on Monday morning in Libahia area in Lafey constituency, Mandera County after a shallow well they were fetching water from caved in on them.

The deceased were trapped inside before dying, after heaps of loose soil making the walls of the 3 meters deep hand dug shallow well collapsed on them as they fetch water for their family.

Confirming the incident Libahia ward member of county assembly (MCA) Hussein Maalim Mohamed who visited the scene said the minor were trapped inside the shallow well, which serves as the only source of water for the expensive and dry area.

He said three donkeys which were to be used by the children to carry the water to their homes were also killed in the incident that has shocked the residents of the remote village.

“When the incident happened the children were unaccompanied by an older person. We suspect the donkeys weight brought down the loose edges of the well as they were tight nearby. And since there was nobody to help them unfortunately succumbed to death” he explained.

Libahia ward MCA said the children- Luqman Abdullahi Guthow, 5, and his elder brother Imran Abdullahi, 9, are all from the same family.

Maalim said the incidents is the latest in an series of death related to water problem in the area in the last five years adding that they will hold the County government of Mandera responsible for the death of the children since it failed on its core mandate of providing basic necessities such as water to the local people.

He accused the County administration of withdrawing a water tender recently announced to alleviate the life threatening water crisis in his ward, noting the local community has on May this year during the maiden visit by the governor Ali Ibrahim Roba to the area has appealed for water provision.

“If the County government has listened to the appeals of our people asking for provision of water in the area prioritized these deaths could have being averted. The county administration is concentrating on a secondary and non essential projects such as tarmacking of small distance roads, while people are lacking basics- water”, he lamented.

Cases of people getting killed in a collapsing hand dug shallow well in pursuit of water is a common phenomena in the drought ravaged North-Eastern region.