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Update
ALERT:
Of the 8,000 IDPs rendered homeless after rains wash away their
refugee camp about 3.000 are from the minorities of Madhibaan, Tumaal and Hawrarsame !
ERITREA: 8,000 IDPs homeless after rains wash away camp
ASMARA, 5 August (IRIN) - Some 8,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in
western Eritrea were homeless after heavy rains washed out their camp on
Friday, the United Nations said.
Appealing for emergency assistance for the IDPs, the UN said its assessment team had so far been unable to reach the camp, which houses
Eritreans displaced from their homes during the border conflict of
1998-2000.
"Heavy rain and hail have destroyed the 2,000 tents at Korokan camp," Musa
Bunguda head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in
Eritrea, said.
"We've been told that the solar panel, health clinic and hand pump are
damaged and the food which they have has been soaked, which will ruin
it," he added, "We are trying to mobilise emergency assistance from the UN
agencies."
According to the Eritrean Relief and Refugee Committee, the IDPs had been
living in the open since their camp was washed away.
"If the IDPs continue to live in a very wet place their health is going to
be affected," Bunguda said. "With the main source of water affected there
will also be an increase in both diarrhoea and malnutrition."
An attempt by a UN team to reach the camp, which is near the border with
Ethiopia failed due to flooded roads. Bunguda said that he had contacted
the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) to try and get
a helicopter to fly to the site.
Currently 57,000 Eritreans live in camps, displaced from their homes by
the two-year border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia and are unable to
return to their homes due to landmines and continuing border insecurity.
There are also 8,000 expellees from Ethiopia without permanent shelter.
"Donors need to assist us now with tents and shelter, not wait until
another storm damages a camp," Bunguda added. "But we also need to get the
money for long-term solutions, to get these people away from living in
tents in the first place."
The UN has appealed for $1.8 million to settle the 8,000 expellees and is
hoping to receive $10 million to begin returning the IDPs to their
homes.
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Madhibaan Refugees in ERITREA:
Eking out a living in Emkulu
MASSAWA, 17 Mar 2004 (IRIN)
As the blazing sun mercilessly beats down on her,
Halima Abdi Adam squints and tries to find some shade under a shrivelled tree.
She is one of over 3,200 Somali refugees who
have ended up in the Emkulu refugee camp on the
outskirts of the Eritrean port city of Massawa. She has just been taking part in
festivities to mark the 8 March International Women’s Day – a welcome diversion from the
tedium of daily life as a refugee.
ON THE MOVE
Emkulu, administered by the Eritrean Office of Refugee Affairs (ORA), which in turn is funded
by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), was originally intended as a transit centre for
Eritrean returnees from Sudan. Hundreds of thousands of Eritreans have been applying for
voluntary repatriation from camps in eastern Sudan which, for many of
them, have been their homes for 30 years since they fled the fighting of
Eritrea’s liberation war.
When hostilities again broke out between Eritrea and Ethiopia in 1998,
however, the Somali refugees, who were initially in the Assab area, were
once more on the move, fleeing conflict. The Bure front, around Assab, saw
some of the fiercest fighting of the bitter two-year war between the Horn of
Africa neighbours.
"There were 2,300 refugees at the Harsile camp in Assab," explains Iyob
Ghebrenegus, the coordinator of Emkulu camp. "About 1,300 came here to
Emkulu, the rest went to other countries. They were really on the front
line."
Emkulu was established as a refugee camp in 2000 when the fighting was
raging around Assab. In subsequent years, more and more Somali refugees
arrived spontaneously, many of them having walked hundreds of miles from
Somalia to Djibouti and then into Eritrea.
Halima – the mother of six children aged between five and 16 - says she fled
her country eight years ago, having witnessed the murder of her father and
brother by Somali militias. At the time, she was living in Afgoye on the
outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu, where law and order had completely
broken down following the ouster of President Siyad Barre in 1991.
She says civilians were constantly caught up in the crossfire as rival militias
fought for control. "No-one could live there," she
recalls. "We had no choice but to flee." She arrived in Eritrea
- partly on foot, partly by lorry - via Ethiopia when the border between the
two countries was still open.
Now, she says, she still has no choice. "Beggars can’t be
choosers. We live here with what we have."
Life in Emkulu can be very difficult because of the harsh climate and
relentless sun. "Life is totally
different here," Halima points out. "In Somalia, I was a person, I had
property."
She however says that even if there was a repatriation she would not
choose to return. She has witnessed terrible atrocities in her homeland and
is too afraid that the events can be repeated over and over again.
"LOWER CLASSES"
Some of the refugees in Emkulu are from the so-called "lower
classes" of Somalia and have always faced discrimination and marginalisation back
home.
Halima is one of them. She comes from the Midgan or Madiban clan –
traditionally hunter-gatherers, now associated with trades such as
blacksmithing or cobbling. Unlike many of the Somali clans, they have no
geographical area in the country and are scattered throughout the various
regions.
Many of them leave simply in search of a better life abroad. The ongoing
Somali peace process doesn’t concern them, says one refugee leader
speaking in excellent English. He is a teacher in the camp.
Even if the sides make peace and an interim charter is adopted later this
month, it will not change anything for the Midgan – a term, he
says, is used pejoratively by Somalis to describe his clan. The peace process in Somalia
has to go way beyond agreement between the major clans; to succeed, it
must also usher in a climate of equity for all Somalis. Otherwise, there will
never be any point in going back, he adds.
Late last year, UNHCR and ORA began registering refugees in the
country, some of whom had been in Eritrea for 10 years, leading many to believe that
repatriation was in the offing. UNHCR said at the time that the new data
would enable the Eritrean government and the agency to better tailor
assistance and protection to the refugees’ needs. The refugee agency also
acknowledged that it would take a closer look at options for voluntary
repatriation to certain areas of Somalia deemed safe for return.
Eritrea has no legislation governing the issue of refugees, but it has
accommodated refugees arriving at its borders and respects the right of
"non-refoulement", meaning no forced returns. The country grants the right
of prima facie recognition to groups of refugees.
STAMPING OUT FGM
Meanwhile in Emkulu, ORA and UNHCR are providing the tools to help the
refugees help themselves through a community services section.
In the camp, blacksmiths forge the tools needed for everyday life,
seamstresses are provided with
training and sewing machines so that they can then sell the products they
make, teachers are sent to Asmara university for refresher courses,
women are trained as midwives and receive certification to deliver babies
safely in the camps.
Interestingly, these women refuse to perform traditional female circumcision
or female genital mutilation (FGM) in the camp.
"We have to stop this practice," says Ambia Salad Hassan, proudly
displaying her certificate, signed by the Eritrean government and UNHCR,
which registers her credentials as a midwife.
She says the most difficult deliveries are among women who had earlier been
circumcised. "We do not perform circumcision in the camp," she
stresses. "We are fighting against it, with the help of the teachers who can educate
the people."
But, she admits, the women still face a lot of opposition from the proponents
of traditional circumcision. "Our husbands think that if we are not
circumcised, we just go around with every man," she says.
Ambia and her fellow midwives stress the need for a campaign, supported by
international players, if the practice is to be stamped out.
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