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Guterres warns of possible large-scale displacement in Somalia

News Stories, 26 December 2006

© UNHCR/J.-P.Amigo
Some among the thousands of Somalis who earlier this year crossed the border into north-east Kenya to escape conflict in their own country.

GENEVA, December 26 (UNHCR) – UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres expressed deep concern Tuesday over the worsening conflict in Somalia, warning that further displacement in the Horn of Africa could severely strain already overstretched relief efforts.

Thousands of civilians have reportedly been displaced in central and southern Somalia by recent fighting between Ethiopian forces aligned with the Somali Transitional Federal Government and the Islamic Courts Union.

Guterres noted in a statement issued in Geneva that Somalia has been affected over the past several months by one crisis after another.

"Early in the year it was drought," he said. "That was followed by internal conflict that sent more than 34,000 refugees to our camps in Dadaab, Kenya. Then, since November, we've seen heavy flooding over a wide area of southern Somalia, and now over the past week, extremely serious fighting.

"I appeal to all sides in this conflict to respect humanitarian principles and protect civilian populations," he continued. "Relief workers in the region are already struggling to contend with huge obstacles, including security and natural disasters. The last thing we and the people of Somalia need is yet another round of massive displacement."

UNHCR staff in Kenya, Ethiopia and across the Gulf of Aden in Yemen are monitoring the situation for any increase in cross-border movements. So far, nothing sizeable has been reported in neighbouring countries. But there are reports of several thousand displaced people on the move within Somalia itself.

Fighting earlier this year between the Islamic Courts Union and various warlords sent some 34,000 Somalis fleeing to Kenya. The influx largely halted in mid-November when floods inundated much of southern Somalia and northern Kenya, where UNHCR operates three sprawling refugee camps at Dadaab that together house some 160,000 refugees – most of them Somalis.

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Crisis in Horn of Africa

Tens of thousands of Somalis are fleeing conflict and drought into Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya.

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Advocacy is a key element in UNHCR activities to protect people of concern.

The High Commissioner

António Guterres, who joined UNHCR on June 15, 2005, is the UN refugee agency's 10th High Commissioner.

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The internally displaced seek safety in other parts of their country, where they need help.

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Kenya Floods Threaten Refugees

Flood waters in north-eastern Kenya in mid-November, caused havoc in the Dadaab refugee complex of three camps. Over 100,000 of the 160,000 refugees have been badly affected by the flooding, particularly in Ifo camp. Refugees' homes were swept away and latrines have overflowed and collapsed. The main supply route linking Dadaab to the rest of Kenya has been cut by the rains, blocking all aid deliveries by road.

To get refugees to safety on higher ground, UNHCR started transferring people to Hagadera camp, 20kms away – often using donkey carts. A series of airlifts has brought in fuel for generators, emergency health kits, tarpaulins, and shovels to fill sandbags to keep the flood waters at bay. Essentials items such as plastic tarpaulins, sleeping mats, and food have been distributed to refugees who lost everything.

These floods have been compared to the massive flooding which followed the record 1997 El Nino rains that swamped much of low-lying eastern Kenya.

Posted on 29 November 2006

Kenya Floods Threaten Refugees

Post-Tsunami Recovery in Puntland

Away from the glare of the international spotlight, Somalia in the Horn of Africa was also hit by last December's Asian tsunami which rolled across the Indian Ocean. UNHCR, as part of an integrated UN emergency response, distributed life-saving supplies, including plastic sheets, blankets, and kitchen sets, to some 45,000 Somalis living along a severely damaged 650km strip of coast in the northeast.

A year on, the area is getting back to its pre-tsunami state with UNHCR and its partners now making the leap from providing emergency aid to investing in development projects. In an effort to improve the lives of the inhabitants of one of the poorest places on Earth, UNHCR has begun rehabilitating schools, building markets and women's centres, as well as constructing roads to help economic development.

The UN's relief efforts are concentrated in a 650km stretch of coastline between Hafun and Garaad in northeast Somalia, an area also known as Puntland. In war-ravaged Somalia, Puntland is a relatively peaceful self-declared autonomous enclave.

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Flood Airdrop in Kenya

Over the weekend, UNHCR with the help of the US military began an emergency airdrop of some 200 tonnes of relief supplies for thousands of refugees badly hit by massive flooding in the Dadaab refugee camps in northern Kenya.

In a spectacular sight, 16 tonnes of plastic sheeting, mosquito nets, tents and blankets, were dropped on each run from the C-130 transport plane onto a site cleared of animals and people. Refugees loaded the supplies on trucks to take to the camps.

Dadaab, a three-camp complex hosting some 160,000 refugees, mainly from Somalia, has been cut off from the world for a month by heavy rains that washed away the road connecting the remote camps to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Air transport is the only way to get supplies into the camps.

UNHCR has moved 7,000 refugees from Ifo camp, worst affected by the flooding, to Hagadera camp, some 20 km away. A further 7,000 refugees have been moved to higher ground at a new site, called Ifo 2.

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