Somali refugees flooding into Yemen despite unrest

By Amena Bakr

Source: Reuters

GENEVA Oct 21 (Reuters) - Somalis fleeing famine and violence are pouring into Yemen at an increasing rate, straining the already troubled host country and aid groups, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday.

However, while rising numbers are crossing the Gulf of Aden, the Dadaab refugee complex across Somalia's land frontier in eastern Kenya has seen a sharp drop in the number of new Somali arrivals. This could be due to cross-border military operations or the onset of heavy rains, the UNHCR said in a statement.

Between January and July, Somali arrivals into Yemen averaged 1,600 people per month, but this increased to 4,500 in August and 3,292 in September, despite unrest in the Arab world's poorest country, it said.

"The increased influx is adding pressure on Yemen and UNHCR," spokesman Andrej Mahecic told a news briefing, adding that the United Nations agency had received only half the $60 million it needs to fund its operations in Yemen this year.

In total, the U.N. estimates around 196,000 Somali refugees are now in Yemen, most having risked their lives to cross the Gulf of Aden on smugglers' boats. A conflict in Yemen's Abyan governorate has displaced more than 97,000 Yemenis, in addition to some 318,000 from Sa'ada governorate in the north, it says.

"Our resources are currently strained by the increase of the Somali refugees but also by the internal displacement in Yemen," Mahecic told Reuters.

Since January, Yemeni protesters, inspired by revolts elsewhere in the Arab world, have demanded an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 32 years of autocratic rule. On Friday, the U.N. Security Council is to vote on a resolution that condemns the government crackdown on the protests.

So far this year, more than 318,000 Somalis were forced to flee their homeland due to the deteriorating situation, the majority going to Kenya and Ethiopia, according to the UNHCR.  

Last week, gunmen kidnapped two Spanish women working for Medecins Sans Frontieres at Dadaab refugee camp and brought them to the rebel stronghold Kismayu in Somalia.

This was part of a series of kidnappings of foreigners in Kenya which prompted Kenya to launch a cross-border incursion into Somalia to flush out al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebels from its frontier area.

Refugee flows into Dadaab have slowed to a trickle, Mahecic said. "No newly-arriving refugees have approached the registration centre (in Kenya) in the last week."

Al Shabaab rebels withdrew from the Somali capital of Mogadishu in August, four years into their battle to overthrow the Western-backed government, an insurgency that has driven the chaotic country deeper into anarchy.

The UNHCR further warned that insecurity in Yemen would breed opportunities for human traffickers and smugglers along the country's Red Sea coast.

"Reports of abductions of migrants or refugees upon arrival to Yemen persist, mostly for ransom or extortion," Mahecic said. Another worrying trend is the prevalence of abuse and sexual assaults of female refugees and migrants while at sea, he said. (Reporting by Amena Bakr; Editing by Stephanie Nebehay)