UNHCR Reveals Nearly 40,000 Vulnerable Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Somalia: A Majority are Women and Children

The latest from UNHCR shows that a whopping 66% of these displaced souls — mainly women and kids hailing from Ethiopia and Yemen — have set up camp in Somalia’s northern urban and semi-urban nooks, particularly in Woqooyi Galbeed and Bari.

Diving deeper, 47%, tallying up to 18,559, hold refugee status. Another 20,727 folks are waiting on asylum. Meanwhile, Somalia grapples with relentless attacks from the militant faction, al-Shabab, fueling the dire circumstances.

Since December 2014, UNHCR has lent a hand to 95,181 Somali souls to return, while 43,897 have made their way back on their own. Altogether, that’s a homecoming crowd of 130,078.

Across nearby borders, more than 800,000 Somali exiles seek refuge. This year alone, 215,000 individuals found themselves internally displaced in Somalia in just five months, heaping onto the whopping 2.9 million uprooted by strife and calamities in 2023.