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UNHCR helps victims of floods in Puntland town

News Stories, 15 November 2007

© Danish Refugee Council/Santiago Perez Crespo
Residents of a Bossaso settlement for displaced people cover their huts with UNHCR plastic sheets.

BOSSASO, Somalia, November 15 (UNHCR) The UN refugee agency has distributed aid to some 10,000 people affected by strong rains which swept across northern Somalia and the port of Bossaso earlier this month.

The shelters of displaced Somalis and Ethiopian refugees were left flooded last week after two-days of torrential rains pounded the normally dry and dusty Bossaso, which lies on the northern coast of Somalia's Puntland.

UNHCR provided emergency shelter material during the storm to more than 40 refugees after they sought sanctuary at the agency's compound in Bossaso, where drainage systems are practically non-existent.

The refugee agency also headed up an inter-agency response to the floods, helping to distribute plastic sheeting at the weekend and late last week to more than 1,700 displaced Somali families some 10,000 people in makeshift sites around Bossaso and at the fixed settlement of Bariga Bossaso.

"This is part of joint efforts with our partners to mitigate the risk of further displacement and avoid a major humanitarian crisis," said Dost Yousafzai, head of UNHCR operations in Puntland.

The residents of one affected site, 100 Bush, welcomed the assistance from UNHCR and its partners, including UNICEF, UN-Habitat, the Danish Refugee Council, the Somali Red Crescent and the Norwegian Refugee Council.

"Some people might wait till tomorrow to cover their hut, I will do it in one hour," said Mu'mina, a grandmother who is looking after 12 orphaned children. Pointing to a muddy mat on the floor of her shelter, she told visitors: "We had to put it up as a temporary ceiling to cover us from the rain."

© A. Fazzini
A displaced woman holds her grandchild while inspecting storm damage in her shelter in Bossaso.

The temporary shelters are often assembled out of cartons, pieces of garbage and other scrap materials.

Last week's floods again demonstrated how vulnerable refugees and displaced people are to the elements. The Somalis have an apt saying: "The rain does not recognize anyone as a friend; it drenches all equally."

By Fatma Bassiouni in Bossaso, Somalia

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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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Widespread malnutrition among Somali refugees requires immediate action.

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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.

Post-Tsunami Recovery in Puntland

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.

Posted in December 2006

Flood Airdrop in Kenya

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