U.S. Committee for Refugees Mid-Year Country Report 2001 - Somalia

Background

Civil war and factional fighting have persisted in much of Somalia since 1988, causing Somalia to produce one of Africa's largest refugee populations during the past decade. The country lacked a functioning national government during most of the 1990s, creating a situation that many international observers characterized as national anarchy. Numerous warlords head clan-based factions that compete violently for political and economic control of Somali territory. Northwest Somalia announced its independence from the rest of the country in 1991 and named itself "Somaliland." Leaders in northeast Somalia formed an autonomous territory named "Puntland" in 1998. Neither Somaliland nor Puntland has received international political recognition.

In 2000, a fragile new national government formed in the capital, Mogadishu. The new governing body, known as the Transitional National Government, immediately encountered armed opposition from local warlords, some of whom continued to control large parts of the capital, Mogadishu, as well as significant territory outside the capital.

At the start of 2001, some 300,000 to 350,000 Somali refugees continued to live in about two-dozen countries of asylum. An equal number of Somalis remained internally displaced. Hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees have repatriated since the mid-1990s despite their country's turmoil.

Political/Military/Human Rights Developments through September

Violence worsened in many parts of Somalia during the first nine months of 2001. The Transitional National Government struggled to exert its authority and ward off attacks by armed factions. The autonomous region of Puntland suffered an internal power struggle and its worst violence in six years.

Nine persons died in January during an ambush attempt against an official of the national government – one of several armed attacks that targeted government officials. Clashes between armed factions in Mogadishu left 50 persons dead in May. A resumption of clan violence killed 17 persons in the capital in a single day in June. Two days of battles in Mogadishu killed 40 to 70 people in July, according to various reports. Scores of people died in the capital in September when a discarded anti-aircraft missile exploded. Outside Mogadishu, nearly 30 died in fighting in May, and battles south of Mogadishu during July to September reportedly killed 200 people and triggered population flight. Anti-government forces temporarily captured the key southern port city of Kismayo in mid-year.

The UN Security Council stated that "the security situation in Somalia is still a cause for serious concern." Negotiations between the Transitional National Government and opposing factions in June produced no results. Neighboring Kenya banned cross-border trading with Somalia in July for the second time in two years, citing security concerns.

Northwest Somalia – Somaliland – remained an area of relative peace, although it, too, suffered isolated political violence and demonstrations in mid-2001. Residents of Somaliland voted 97 percent in favor of independence and a new constitution in a May referendum. Somalia's government in Mogadishu called the referendum "illegal."

New Uprooted Populations through September

Recurring armed clashes caused Somali families in central and southern regions to flee their homes during the first nine months of 2001. Thousands of others left their homes because of crop failures. Accurate estimates of the country's new population displacement were impossible, however, because general insecurity prevented international aid agencies from functioning in many areas. Many uprooted southerners have relocated to peaceful regions such as Somaliland.

The largest visible population flow occurred in March, when up to 10,000 Somalis fled into northeast Kenya's Mandera region to escape an outbreak of violence in southwestern Somalia that reportedly left 14 persons dead. The new refugees received no international aid in Kenya, and most returned to their homes in Somalia by June.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that nearly 30,000 refugees repatriated to Somaliland during the first eight months of 2001. However, the actual number of returnees was believed to be one-third that number because of massive fraud in Somali refugee camps in neighboring Ethiopia that inflated refugee and repatriation rolls.

Some 130 Somali refugees repatriated from Yemen to Mogadishu by air in April. Some of the returnees claimed that they were beaten and forced to repatriate involuntarily, but UNHCR found no basis for the allegations.

Humanitarian Conditions through September

Restrictions on humanitarian aid programs forced by years of insecurity continued to hamper thorough assessments of humanitarian conditions in much of Somalia. Aid agencies cancelled several food assessment missions scheduled in early 2001. "Humanitarian access in southern Somalia is at its lowest ebb ... since 1995," a UN report stated in April. Nine relief workers in Mogadishu were ambushed and temporarily taken hostage in March after a fierce gunfight. UN officials evacuated UN international relief staff from the entire country for several days in September because of rising war-risk insurance costs. UN aid staff began to re-enter the country by the end of the month.

Despite successful harvests during 2000, serious food shortages loomed by mid-2001 because of new crop failures caused by poor rainfall and pest infestations. The UN World Food Program (WFP) announced an "early warning of a very serious food situation" in June and cited a need for 40,000 tons of food relief for up to a half-million Somalis in August. Other food analysts reported that half the population in the worst-affected areas would suffer a 40 percent food shortfall. In Somaliland's main city, Hargeisa, crowded camps for returnees suffered 15 percent child malnutrition rates in August.

More than 100,000 Somali refugees in neighboring Kenya also suffered food shortages because of reduced food donations by international donors. Somali refugees in Kenya received two-thirds rations and threatened a hunger strike to publicize their plight. The number of malnourished children in the Kenyan camps doubled during the first half of 2001, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Only 14 percent of Somalia's school-age children attended school, UNICEF reported in July. The country's annual cholera outbreak afflicted nearly 900 people in the first four months of the year. The entire country – particularly Somaliland – continued to suffer economic consequences from a ban on Somali cattle imposed last year by Somalia's trading partners in the Persian Gulf, who fear that the cattle are diseased. Tens of thousands of Somali refugees who have repatriated to Somaliland in recent years continued to struggle to rebuild their lives amid dim economic prospects. UNHCR and the UN Development Program announced a program in July, the "Reintegration of Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons," which aims to provide water systems, housing, health care, and education to areas with large returnee populations.

Approximately 300,000 refugees remained outside the country as of September 2001, and an estimated 350,000 Somalis remained internally displaced, according to relief workers.