UNHCR positioning staff and relief items in Horn of Africa as thousands flee Somalia fighting

News Stories, 27 December 2006

© UNHCR/J.Adongo
UNHCR is pre-positioning relief supplies in the region around Somalia, where thousands of civilians are reportedly being displaced by fighting. Here, Somali refugees who fled fighting in September receive jerry cans and other supplies in Dadaab, north-eastern Kenya.

GENEVA, December 27 (UNHCR) – As the fighting in Somalia intensifies, the UN refugee agency is mobilising staff and resources in preparation for possible widespread displacement in the region.

Although no large-scale refugee movements from Somalia have yet been recorded in neighbouring countries, UNHCR is immediately positioning relief items in the region for up to 50,000 people, as well as trucks and emergency staff.

The agency is reinforcing its operational capacity in north-eastern Kenya and in Ethiopia in response to the worsening humanitarian situation in Somalia, where thousands of people have been displaced by recent fighting between Ethiopian forces aligned with the Somali Transitional Federal Government and the Islamic Courts Union.

Relief items, including plastic sheets and jerry cans for up to 50,000 people, are being sent from UNHCR warehouses in the region and positioned along the Somali border. At the same time, UNHCR's fleet of vehicles is being expanded with the deployment of 10 extra trucks.

In addition to the immediate pre-positioning of relief items, UNHCR will also increase its existing stockpiles in the region by purchasing enough supplies for a further 100,000 people – refugees as well as internally displaced people.

UNHCR emergency response teams are on standby, ready to be sent to the region from around the world. Staff on holiday leave have been recalled as UNHCR offices in Kenya, Ethiopia and across the Gulf of Aden in Yemen closely monitor the situation for any increase in cross-border movements. So far, only small numbers of refugees have been crossing into both Kenya and Ethiopia.

Inside Somalia, thousands of people fleeing the conflict are reported to be in a desperate situation. UNHCR staff in Puntland, in the north-east, report some 3,000 displaced people who fled the fighting further south. UNHCR has also received reports of several thousand people displaced in the Bay, Hirann, Mudug, Juba, and Shabelle regions. The agency is particularly concerned about reports of civilians, including children, being forcibly recruited to join the fighting.

In a statement issued in Geneva on Tuesday, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres expressed concern at the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Somalia and appealed to all sides in the conflict to respect humanitarian principles and the rights of the civilian population.

• DONATE NOW • • GET INVOLVED • • STAY INFORMED •

 

Related Stories

Emergency Response

UNHCR is committed to increasing its ability to respond to complex emergency situations.

UNHCR in Dubai: Helping Rebuild Lives

Information brochure about UNHCR's Global Emergency Stockpile located in Dubai.

Pakistan Earthquake

Kenya Floods Threaten Refugees

Gulf of Aden People-Smuggling: International Help Needed

Somalia: People Smuggling

Despite the risks desperate people are willing to pay smugglers to help them escape violence or poverty.

Somali Refugees: Camps In Crisis

UNHCR faces a major challenge in finding solutions for newly arrived Somalia refugees in Kenya.

UN High Commissioner Visits Somalis in Kenya

In a visit to the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp on the Kenya-Somalia border in advance of World Refugee Day on Friday, the UN refugee agency chief, António Guterres said a political solution must be found to end the violence in Somalia and he acknowledged that UNHCR had to do more to help those uprooted by the 17-year conflict. Dadaab hosts 200,000 refugees with 20,000 new arrivals from Somali since January.