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A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced people. Usually, refugees seek asylum after they have escaped war in their home countries, but some camps also house environmental and economic migrants. Camps with over a hundred thousand people are common, but as of 2012, the average-sized camp housed around 11,400. They are usually built and run by a government, the United Nations, international organizations, or non-governmental organization. Unofficial refugee camps, such as Idomeni in Greece or the Calais jungle in France, are where refugees are largely left without support of governments or international organizations.
Dadaab is a semi-arid town in Garissa County, Kenya. It is the site of a UNHCR base hosting 223,420 registered refugees and asylum seekers in three camps as of 13 May 2019, making it the third-largest such complex in the world. The center is run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and its operations are financed by foreign donors. In 2013, UNHCR, the governments of Kenya and Somalia signed a tripartite agreement facilitating the repatriation of Somali refugees at the complex.
Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a private Danish humanitarian nonprofit organization, founded in 1956. It serves as an umbrella organization for 33 member organizations.
Various international and local diplomatic and humanitarian efforts in the Somali Civil War have been in effect since the conflict first began in the early 1990s. The latter include diplomatic initiatives put together by the African Union, the Arab League and the European Union, as well as humanitarian efforts led by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP), the Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF) and the Somali Red Crescent Society (SRCS).
The Battle of Jowhar was a battle in the 2006 Somali War fought between the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and affiliated militias against Ethiopian and Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces for control of the town of Jowhar. It began on December 27, 2006, when retreating ICU forces regrouped near their stronghold of Jowhar. It became the last major town and strategic stronghold of the ICU to fall to Ethiopian and TFG forces before the latter overtook Mogadishu two days later.
Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan, also known as General Morgan or Colonel Morgan, is a Somali military and faction leader. He was the son-in-law of Siad Barre and Minister of Defence of Somalia. His military campaign in Southern Somalia in 1992 was one of the main causes of the famine in Somalia. He hails from the Mejerteen Darood clan.
Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, more commonly known as al-Shabaab, is a Somalia-based Islamic insurgence group active in East Africa. The group describes itself as waging jihad against "enemies of Islam" and is engaged in combat against the Federal Government of Somalia and the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM). The group has been suspected of having links with al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram. Al-Shabab has often clashed with the Somali Sufi militia Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a. Al-Shabaab’s leaders and commanders are mainly from the Hawiye clan, which is one of the largest clans in Somalia. It has attracted some members from Western countries, including Briton Samantha Lewthwaite and American Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki.
The timeline of events in the War in Somalia during 2007 is set out below.
The Somali Bantus are a Bantu origin ethnic minority group in Somalia who primarily reside in the southern part of the country, primarily near the Jubba and Shabelle rivers. The Somali Bantus are descendants of enslaved peoples from various Bantu ethnic groups from Southeast Africa, particularly from Mozambique, Malawi, and Tanzania. The East African slave trade was not eliminated until the early parts of the 20th century.
The Battle of Mogadishu began on 21 March 2007 in the Shirkole area of Mogadishu between Somali Transitional Federal Government forces and allied Ethiopian troops, and Islamist insurgents. The battle usually includes the dates, when referenced, in order to distinguish it amongst the nine major Battles of Mogadishu during the decades-long Somali Civil War.
The 2009 timeline of events in the Somalia War (2006–2009) during January 2009 is set out below. From the beginning of February the timeline of events in the Somali Civil War (2009–present) is set out following the conclusion of the previous phase of the civil war.
Two large-scale attacks against AMISOM soldiers carried out by al-Shabaab suicide bombers in Mogadishu, Somalia occurred in 2009. In total 32 people, including 28 AMISOM soldiers, were killed and 55 people were injured.
The Battle of Mogadishu (2010–11) began on 23 August 2010 when al-Shabaab insurgents began attacking government and African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) positions in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Al-Shabaab began its offensive after its spokesman said the group was declaring a "massive war" on troops sent by AMISOM, describing its 6,000 peacekeepers as "invaders". In December 2010 the number of AMISOM troops was increased to 8,000 and later to 9,000. The battle's name usually includes the years, when referenced, in order to distinguish it amongst the nine major Battles of Mogadishu during the decades long Somali Civil War.
Occurring between July 2011 and mid-2012, a severe drought affected the entire East African region. Said to be "the worst in 60 years", the drought caused a severe food crisis across Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya that threatened the livelihood of 9.5 million people. Many refugees from southern Somalia fled to neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, where crowded, unsanitary conditions together with severe malnutrition led to a large number of deaths. Other countries in East Africa, including Sudan, South Sudan and parts of Uganda, were also affected by a food crisis.
The Isaaq genocide, or Hargeisa holocaust, was the systematic, state-sponsored genocide of Isaaq civilians between 1987 and 1989 by the Somali Democratic Republic under the dictatorship of Siad Barre during the Somaliland War of Independence. The number of civilian deaths in this massacre is estimated to be between 50,000 and 100,000, according to various sources, whilst local reports estimate the total civilian deaths to be upwards of 200,000 Isaaq civilians. The genocide also included the levelling and complete destruction of the second and third largest cities in the Somali Republic, Hargeisa and Burao, respectively, and had caused up to 500,000 Somalis to flee their land and cross the border to Hartasheikh in Ethiopia as refugees in what was described as "one of the fastest and largest forced movements of people recorded in Africa", which resulted in the creation of the world's largest refugee camp then (1988), with another 400,000 being displaced. The scale of destruction led to Hargeisa being known as the 'Dresden of Africa'. The killings happened during the Somali Civil War and have been referred to as a "forgotten genocide".
In 2017 a drought ravaged Somalia that has left more than 6 million people, or half the country's population, facing food shortages with several water supplies becoming undrinkable due to the possibility of infection.
Camp TURKSOM is a military base and a defence university in Mogadishu, Somalia. Since its inception, Camp TURKSOM serves as the main hub of the intergovernmental task force dubbed "African Eagle" in which Turkey aims to train and prepare the officers and NCOs of the Somali Armed Forces, thereby helping the Somali government in its efforts to build a national military force that can sustain itself. In terms of its function, alongside offering training support to the Somali Armed Forces for its sustainability, the base extends this training and provides necessary equipment for the country’s coastguard and navy as well. These trainings in the larger scheme are aimed at aiding the Somali soldiers in fighting against Al-Shabaab, which received criticism from AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) for replicating its efforts with regards to military training. The military base serves as Turkey's largest overseas military facility. It covers a space of 400 hectares. Camp TURKSOM also has various political implications, as the military base, while countering Al Shabaab's foreign policy, politically serves Turkish interests and improves Turkey-Somalia relations. Criticisms have been posed to the base due to its centrality in Mogadishu leaving out other regions of Somalia such as Puntland and Somaliland.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity has intensified in many places – in the second quarter of 2020 there were multiple warnings of famine later in the year. According to early predictions, hundreds of thousands of people would likely die and millions more experience hunger without concerted efforts to address issues of food security. As of October 2020, these efforts were reducing the risk of widespread starvation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The famine in the Tigray War is an acute shortage of food leading to death and starvation in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia, which resulted from the Tigray War that started in November 2020. As of May 2021 there are 5.5 million people facing acute food insecurity and over 350,000 people experiencing catastrophic famine conditions. It is the worst famine worldwide since the 2011 famine in Somalia.
The Somaliland War of Independence was a rebellion waged by the Somali National Movement against the ruling military junta in Somalia led by General Siad Barre lasting from its founding on 6 April 1981 and ended on 18 May 1991 when the SNM declared what was then northern Somalia independent as the Republic of Somaliland. The conflict served as the main theater of the larger Somali Rebellion that started in 1978. The conflict was in response to the harsh policies enacted by the Barre regime against the main clan family in Somaliland, the Isaaq, including a declaration of economic warfare on the Isaaq. These harsh policies were put into effect shortly after the conclusion of the disastrous Ogaden War in 1978.
References
- ↑ Displaced Somalis Face Overcrowding at Refugee Camps | News | English
- ↑ Mogadishu Offers Little Comfort to Somalis Arriving From Famine | Africa | English
- ↑ "Fight Over Food Supplies Leaves 7 Somalis Dead in the Badbaado Refugee Camp in Mogadishu". VOICE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS. Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2011-12-05.
- ↑ Somalia warns soldiers against looting of food aid, shooting of refugees - Political News « ArcaMax Publishing
- ↑ allAfrica.com: Somalia: IDPs At Mogadishu's Badbado Refugee Camp Start Fleeing