U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 2003 - Somalia

Nearly 300,000 refugees and asylum seekers from Somalia lived in about two dozen countries at the end of 2002, including more than 140,000 in Kenya, nearly 80,000 in Yemen, 21,000 in Djibouti, about 20,000 in Ethiopia, some 7,000 in South Africa, about 7,000 in Egypt, more than 3,000 in Tanzania, some 3,000 in Libya, more than 2,000 in Eritrea, about 1,000 in Uganda, and more than 15,000 Somali asylum seekers in various European countries and the United States.

Approximately 350,000 Somalis were internally displaced at year's end.

An estimated 20,000 Somali refugees repatriated during the year, primarily to northern Somalia.

Pre-2002 Events

Civil war and factional fighting have besieged Somalia for more than a decade, causing more than 500,000 deaths.

Conditions were particularly severe during 1991–92, when war and massive population upheaval produced famine and left 2 million Somalis internally displaced and 800,000 as refugees. Large numbers gradually returned to their home areas during 1992–98 amid continued violence and population upheavals.

Political leaders in northern Somalia maintained autonomy from the rest of the country. Leaders in the northwest, largely of the Issaq clan, continued to rule their territory of "Somaliland," formed in 1991.

Leaders in the northeast, dominated by the Darod clan, maintained control of their territory of "Puntland," formed in 1998. While no foreign government officially recognized either autonomous region, both regions pursued modest reconstruction efforts and population reintegration.

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

Violence in 2002 Escalations in violence worsened already dangerous conditions in much of Somalia during 2002. The TNG struggled to control small areas of Mogadishu, exert its authority outside of the capital, and fend off attacks by armed factions.

Widespread anarchy and violence compounded the already difficult lives of people suffering from persistent drought and food shortages throughout central and southern Somalia.

In Puntland, a power struggle for the presidency erupted into the area's worst violence in seven years. Fighting stoked by political rivals that claimed the presidency killed more than 100 people. Somaliland remained relatively peaceful.

Clan-related attacks and factional rivalries produced hundreds of civilian fatalities and casualties during the year. In May, intense clashes between TNG forces and opposition militias in Mogadishu left more than 60 persons dead and hundreds of others wounded. An attack by gunmen against a school bus in southern Mogadishu in late December killed 4 teenage students and wounded 12 others. The motive for the attack remained unclear.

Extended battles between inter-clan rivals in southwest Somalia, primarily in Bakool Region, Gedo Region, and in the town of Baidoa, the capital of Bay Region, uprooted several thousand people and left hundreds dead and wounded.

Humanitarian agencies continued to experience targeted attacks.

In March, a Swiss aid worker was murdered at the secondary school she had founded. In April, a Somali aid worker was killed in southwestern Gedo Region. In September, gunmen fired at an airplane carrying a UN delegation monitoring food distributions in drought-stricken Gedo Region.

Assailants kidnapped at least 10 Somali relief workers before releasing them unharmed. Armed men attacked a rural health clinic operated by Médecins Sans Frontières in October.

Uprooted Somalis

Intensified factional conflict displaced an estimated 50,000 people during 2002 and curbed hopes for widespread reintegration.

An estimated 350,000 Somalis remained internally displaced at year's end. The precise number of new internally displaced Somalis remained uncertain because poor security hampered thorough assessments in most regions of Somalia.

New violence in northeastern, central, and southern Somalia pushed nearly 30,000 Somalis into Kenya and other neighboring countries, as well as to Europe and the United States.

In February, fighting between a pro-TNG clan and opposition forces killed more than 100 people and forced hundreds of families from their homes in the town of Bardhere in southern Gedo Region. Approximately 10,000 Somalis fled to northeastern Kenya to escape inter-clan clashes in Gedo Region in April. Several thousand others fled their homes, but remained in the country. Renewed fighting pushed several thousand more Somalis into Kenya in May.

In July, inter-clan fighting in Somalia's southwest Bay and Bakool Regions left more than 150 dead, several hundred wounded, and hundreds of families uprooted from their homes. Fleeing political violence in Puntland, more than 100 Somalis died at sea during the year when their boats capsized in the Gulf of Aden.

Approximately 200,000 displaced persons continued to live in some 200 Mogadishu-area camps and squatter settlements at year's end. An estimated 90,000 displaced persons lived in settlements in south and central Somalia during 2002.

Some 40,000 others remained internally displaced in relatively peaceful Somaliland, including newly uprooted civilians who had fled violence in other regions of Somalia. Nearly 30,000 Somalis remained internally displaced in Puntland. Many displaced Somalis lived in conditions "so miserable and inhumane that you could hardly imagine," a UN human rights expert visiting Somalia declared in September.

Also in September, a fire razed an entire camp for internally displaced people in Puntland. Although no casualties occurred, the blaze consumed the homes and personal belongings of approximately 400 families.

Repatriation of Somali Refugees

An estimated 20,000 Somali refugees repatriated during 2002, primarily from neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Kenya. Most refugees repatriated with assistance from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa, and the Somaliland towns of Boorama and Burao.

An estimated 10,000 Somali refugees returned home from Ethiopia, where most had lived in exile for more than a decade. UNHCR officially reported that nearly 30,000 Somalis repatriated, but that number was greatly inflated as a result of massive fraud in eastern Ethiopia's refugee program. Fewer than 3,000 Somali refugees repatriated from Djibouti during the year.

Some 6,000 Somali refugees who fled to northeastern Kenya in mid-2002 returned to their homes in southern Somalia's Gedo Region in July. UNHCR did not assist with their return. Some 220 Somali refugees repatriated from Kenya to Somaliland on UNHCR-chartered planes.

In recent years, tens of thousands of returnees to Somaliland continued to struggle to rebuild their lives amid bleak economic prospects and inadequate social services. Most returnees during 2002 received a nine-month food supply from the World Food Program.

UNHCR provided water containers, basic kitchen essentials, blankets, plastic sheeting, and small cash transportation allowances to help returnees reach their homes from border transit centers.

Returnees also benefited from UNHCR-implemented community-based reintegration programs that included education, health, water, food production, and income-generation projects. Reintegration programs remained small and difficult to sustain, however, because of chronic under-funding and poor security.

UNHCR estimated that some 15,000 Somalis willing to return home during 2002 had to remain in refugee camps in Kenya, Djibouti, and Yemen because of lack of funding for repatriation programs.

Humanitarian Conditions

A sharp increase in violence during 2002 impeded deliveries of humanitarian assistance and worsened already deplorable living conditions. "Security-related program disruptions directly caused greater suffering among the Somali people," the UN secretary general reported in August.

Sustained violence severely limited international humanitarian access to hundreds of thousands of Somalis in need of emergency assistance. In April, aid agencies suspended food distribution and other relief activities in areas of southwest Somalia's Gedo Region because of poor security.

Internally displaced Somalis beyond the reach of humanitarian agencies in the area camped under makeshift shelters and struggled to survive on diminished food supplies. Violence in the town of Baidoa prevented humanitarian agencies from reaching thousands of persons displaced in Bay Region during the last half of 2002.

Although overall food availability improved in Somalia during 2002, food shortages surfaced in central and southern regions because poor security prevented farmers from harvesting crops. "Nearly 800,000 people are affected by food deficits with many already living below the poverty line," UNICEF reported in May.

Above-normal rainfall in northern and southern Somalia brought outbreaks of waterborne diseases, including cholera, diarrhea, and malaria. Hundreds of people, primarily internally displaced children under the age of five, were hospitalized in Mogadishu for severe diarrhea in November.

Somalia's nationwide child malnutrition rate of 17 percent remained one of the highest in the world. Malnutrition rates in Gedo Region, which suffered a third year of drought, doubled to 37 percent in 2002. A nutrition survey in Somaliland revealed that 15 percent of children who repatriated from refugee camps in Ethiopia suffered from malnutrition.

More than 70 percent of Somalis did not have access to health care or potable water. The maternal mortality rate was the third highest in the world.

The UN Development Agency (UNDP) appealed to donor nations for $22 million to support development operations in Somalia during 2002. Donors provided less than $3 million by year's end, forcing UNDP and other humanitarian agencies to eliminate or dramatically reduce poverty reduction and infrastructure development programs.

Donor nations failed to provide UNICEF with nearly 50 percent of the funds needed for health, education, and water programs for women, children, and repatriated refugees.