Ethiopia opens fifth camp for Somali refugees

NAIROBI (AlertNet) - The Ethiopian government and United Nations have opened a new refugee camp for thousands of Somalis fleeing violence in the Horn of Africa country.
Somalia shares its northwestern border with Ethiopia, which has experienced a growing influx of Somalis over the last three months. "We have been receiving up to 3,000 refugees per month from Gedo, Mogadishu and Bakool regions in south-central Somalia," Kisut Gebre Egziabher, spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), told AlertNet. Fighting in Somalia has killed at least 21,000 people and forced more than 1.5 million from their homes since the start of 2007, producing what aid agencies describe as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Kenya, Somalia's neighbour to the south east, has tightened its border controls, and the authorities are reluctant to allocate more land to ease congestion in the sprawling Dadaab camp, which already holds some 260,000 people - mainly refugees. Ethiopia hosts more than 60,000 displaced Somalis at four sites, and the additional camp at Melkadida, 65 kilometres from the Somali border, will be able to accommodate up to 20,000 more. "Early last year, we opened a new camp at Bokolmanyo but it got full within one year - a sign that we will continue to get refugees as long as the Somalia crisis continues to get worse," said Egziabher in a telephone interview from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. With an average of 200 Somalis arriving in Ethiopia each day, UNHCR says it is planning for further camps near Melkadida. Western security agencies say Somalia has become a safe haven for militants, including foreign jihadists, who use it to plot attacks across the region and beyond. Ethiopia invaded its Horn of Africa neighbour with tacit U.S. support at the end of 2006 to oust an Islamist movement that was running the capital Mogadishu and much of the south. The Ethiopian military officially withdrew in January last year. Officials in Addis Ababa routinely deny that Ethiopian soldiers are on Somali soil, although they say they are providing security advice and training for Somalia's forces. MORE UPROOTED IN MOGADISHU Fighting in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, has forced 13,600 people from their homes in the last two weeks, according to the United Nations. "Of these, only 8,800 managed to escape from the capital, mainly to the IDP (internally displaced person) settlements in the Afgooye corridor, while 4,800 people are stranded in relatively safer areas of Mogadishu," a UNHCR briefing note said. Much of Mogadishu is controlled by al Shabaab, an Islamist militant group which Washington says is al Qaeda's proxy in the region. There are fears the humanitarian crisis could worsen if the Somali government launches a promised offensive against al Shabaab and another rebel group Hizbul Islam, which both want to impose a harsh version of sharia law in the war-torn country. The international community and neighbouring countries are concerned about the wider threat posed by al Shabaab insurgents who control a large part of Somalia and are fighting its fragile government.