Somalia Famine Refugees Joined by Others Fleeing Insecurity
October 31, 2011
Kenya's military offensive against Islamic extremists in southern Somalia is sparking concern about a fresh exodus of Somali refugees to camps in Ethiopia
.
The rainy season has arrived in most of the Horn of Africa, raising hopes for an end to the drought that destroyed the last few harvests, triggering famine in Somalia.
Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have already fled the famine zone to camps in Kenya and Ethiopia.
The reception center at the Dollo Ado, Ethiopia, camp receives hundreds of refugees a day.
Anne Laako of the United Nations refugee agency helps to register the new arrivals.
She says there is a new category of refugee joining the families with malnourished children. They are mostly men, escaping al-Shabab, the militant group that has imposed its extreme vision of Islam on southern Somalia.
"It's not only the drought and famine but it's restrictions of movement by al-Shabab, and those combined. It's more difficult to move to where they used to move in order to get food and in order to get water and these things," Laako said.
Samuel Emmanuel of Ethiopia's refugee agency ARRA is coordinator of Hilaweyn camp, one of four facilities housing 130,000 refugees in the Dollo Ado complex.
He says construction has begun on another camp as fresh fighting forces more Somalis to flee what is becoming both a famine zone and a war zone.
最新
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27
2013-11-27