At that time I was a student in a secondary school. One early morning on May 27th 1988 everything suddenly went wrong. There was great confusion, noise, people screaming, people dying, the noise of guns, bombs and tanks moving, and houses burning. Many ordinary innocent people died. Some ran to the forest and the neighbouring countries. I did not know what to do except run for my life.

Life was a disaster. Hundreds of people were killed and their crops destroyed. We were a very big family. We all loved each other. Now I am left on my own. Sometimes I feel am the only one in this world with no one. I know of so many families which were destroyed and will never be reunited. I pray and hope that things will change and be better one day.

I ran away on my own. I hid in the trees or in holes. I was hungry and tired. I came to a small place where people were sifting around and eating meat. I asked if they could give me some food and they did. After that I asked them what they were doing there and they told me they were eating a dead corpse. They said if they did not get any food they would eat the youngest of them!

I was shocked. Could they really be eating a human being? Then the man said "We are Muslims we could never eat a human being. These are our animals and we are nomads. When they die we eat them "

. I thanked Allah for that and went on. I had not eaten a human being. There were corpses everywhere, wild animals came into the towns to eat them. Tanks moved through the streets killing anyone. All the noise nearly made me deaf. Nobody could understand each other. People became wild and there were murders. My feet were bleeding because I had to travel without shoes. I thought about my family day and night.

At last l came to a refugee camp called Hartashate which was between Hargeisha and Burao. I had a brother who lived abroad so he sent me a visa and now I am very happy in England.