01/14/2011

Exodus from Somalia continues; civil war victims must be protected!

UN Security Council to discuss situation in Somalia today

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) appealed to the UN Security Council on Friday to pay particular attention in today's session on Somalia to the desperate situation of refugees from the civil war, and to take steps to ensure their protection. "In the face of continued fighting especially in and around the capital, Mogadishu, the exodus of the civilian population from Somalia goes on," reported the head of the Africa section at the STP, Ulrich Delius, in Göttingen. "Since July 2010, 109,000 people have been forced to leave their homes." Many are seeking safety in neighboring countries. But they are often denied protection in those lands, in spite of Geneva Convention provisions for their protection. "In view of the catastrophic human rights situation in Somalia, the international community should increase their humanitarian aid for the neighboring countries, so that Somali refugees are no longer turned away."

On 3 January 2011 the Interior Minister of Yemen announced that it would be deporting several hundred Somalis because they had entered the country illegally. Since July 2010 Saudi Arabia has deported at least 4,100 Somali refugees. In 2010, Kenya refused entry to 8,000 refugees from the civil war in spite of intervention by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. "When even the appeals from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees are ignored, the UN Security Council must take action and ensure that the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees is observed."

In Yemen, roughly 16,000 new Somali refugees were registered in 2010. Thus this country has officially taken in 170,000 civil war refugees from Somalia. More Somalis are seeking asylum in neighboring Kenya. Around 300,00 Somalis are living in three refugee camps in near Dadaab in northern Kenya, although these camps were originally set up for a total of 90,000 occupants. The 300,000 includes some 100,000 school-aged children. Every week, another 1,500 new refugees arrive in the camps. Most are fleeing the fighting in and around Mogadishu, in which 2,200 civilians were killed in 2010.

"The exodus from Somalia will surely increase in the coming months, as this eastern African country is threatened with renewed famine," said Delius. The last rainy season, from October to December, was so dry that crop failures are expected on a huge scale. This would considerably worsen the already dismal situation of the civilian population.