Ethiopia: Camaboker camp closes

Briefing notes

Ethiopia: Camaboker camp closes

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

5 November 2002

UNHCR closed the Camaboker camp in eastern Ethiopia on Friday (Nov. 1) after completing the repatriation of nearly 18,000 Somali refugees in the camp to their homes in Somaliland, north-west Somalia. Since May 2002, when we started return movements from the camp, a total of 13 convoys have transported returnees mainly to the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa.

Camaboker is the sixth of eight refugee camps for Somali refugees to be closed in Ethiopia over the last three years. The camp, nearly 200 km south-east of Jijiga, was set up in 1988 to accommodate Somali refugees fleeing Somaliland's war of secession. It later also took in refugees who fled Somalia's civil war which started in 1991. At its peak in 1995, Camaboker sheltered nearly 32,000 refugees. UNHCR has also closed Hartisheik B, Dawarnaji, Teferiber, Rabasso and Daror camps, all in eastern Ethiopia.