Approximately 3,000 families fleeing violence in the Ethiopian Somali region have crossed the border to Somaliland, where they usually take refuge with family members in Somaliland.

Women, children and the elderly form the majority of the population who flee from Jigjiga, capital of the Somali region of Ethiopia, and cross the border in the city Wajaale in the Gabiley district of the Maroodi Jeex and Hariirad region in the Awdal region in Somalia.

The Commissioner of Gabiley, Mohamed Ise, said that the people were displaced from Horfadhi, Gobyarey and Magaalo-Qaran in Ethiopia and are now settling in Borama, Hargeisa, Wajaale, Berbera and Burao in Somaliland.

Hodan Samriye Maydane, a mother of four from Jigjiga, said she has been given shelter and sufficient food for herself and her children by family, who gave them a room on August 8th. Two of her children in the second grade are no longer in school. She left Jigjiga because of the uncertainty and the closure of shops after the army had taken control of the city. She could not buy food and therefore decided to leave.

Before she reached Hargeisa, Hodan said she was stopped by the Liyu police of the Somali-Ethiopian region, who tried to prevent her crossing the border.

Earlier this month, the deployment of Ethiopian forces in Jigjiga led to clashes with deaths between federal forces and the controversial paramilitary Liyu police in the region.

Abdirashid Ahmed Hassan, an adviser in the Immigration Office of Somaliland, said that more than 600 families crossed the border at Wajaale in the space of two days. He said the authorities accept that everyone seeks asylum from Ethiopia, regardless of their ethnicity.

He added that immigration officials arrive who bring free transport to their relatives in Somaliland.

The people who arrive from Jigjiga have mainly family members in Somaliland and hope to return to Ethiopia as soon as the peace in their areas has been restored.

Halimo Muhumed Fure and her eight children spent four days in Gabiley with relatives in Gabiley. They fled Jigjiga in the heat of the skirmishes and did not have time to collect clothes or other things. Halimo said they get food and other supplies from their relatives, but she is afraid that the host family will not be able to support them for a long time.

Somaliland welcomes families fleeing violence in the Somali region of Ethiopia was last modified: August 17, 2018 by MGoth