European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 23, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday december 23, 1992 Somalia the stars and stripes Page 9 despair pain a and perhaps just a touch of Hope a Are continued from Page 8 event in the town. A Short walk through the marketplace and town Square initially presents a Western visitor with scores of seemingly healthy and Happy children eager to tag along with the strangers. Soon however the depth of the catastrophe that has overwhelmed this stretch of Eastern Africa is revealed. A closer look shows that even the seemingly healthy children Are malnourished. They Are suffering from respiratory diseases skin rashes and sores. Infected eyes Are common. The condition of the people deteriorates fast outside immediate town boundaries. Waajid is surrounded by a series of shantytowns occupied by Farmers and nomads who fled the civil War and famine and now live under sheets of plastic and Burlap stretched Over the branches of acacia Trees. The Large and growing population offers the full reflected on the faces of three desperate residents in Waajid where misery has become a Way of life. Extent of human misery in the town. Adow dire a 12-year-old boy sat on an animal hide outside his family a squalid Home. A piece of cloth pulled Over his Lap hid the stumps of his legs which he lost three weeks ago in the explosion of a hand grenade he found while herding goats. An old Man beckoned visitors to look at his 14-year-old Niece Haviva Hassan who Lay silent beneath a Blanket a staring off not seeing the strangers. Translating for the child a Uncle Waajid resident Abdullah Andinor said the child a parents Are dead from starvation and she is suffering from measles. A she is dying a he said. Next to the girl flies danced across the faces of two other children who were shivering with fever beneath blankets. A few Yards away an old Man who looked to be 70 but said he was Only 52, sat on the ground outside his family watching As he reached uncontrollably. In the Shade of a Small tree a boy believed to be in his teens was curled up beneath a Blanket dead. Swift said residents suffer from diarrhoea dysentery pneumonia malnutrition infection malaria and other diseases. Death does not confine itself to the refugees. There Are few people in this town who have not lost loved ones. Mohamed Adan a Farmer has two wives and eight children. His oldest child a son is 17. Conditions for his family have improved in recent months he said. There is More food coming into the Community through Relief agencies and less of it is being stolen by bandits. But at the height of the famine disaster struck Adana a family twice. A i have lost two children. One was 4 years old. The other was 2,�?� he said. Roble urged visitors to assure Relief agencies that his town is Safe a we live in peace. We ask the world to come  a woman draws water from a Well hoping it contains no contaminants that will cause disease. In the Center photo a somali holds a Cracker behind his Back saving it for later. The woman carrying a tray of food knows it wont last Long but she a glad to have it