Mustafa Ahmed Abubakar’s life was on track. He had a decent job and was looking into to settling down. And then the fighting broke out. “I had no plans to flee my country but my parents wanted to leave and asked me to accompany them. I decided to go along because my dad was not well.” Says the 2...

A two day workshop on mixed migration was held on 12 and 13 September in Hargeisa, Somaliland. The workshop brought together different government ministries, NGOs and international organisations in Somaliland that play a role in addressing mixed migration. The objective of the forum was to update...

Martha Kow-Donkor knows exactly how it feels to be a refugee. At the height of a major civil war in the early 90s, she fled her native Liberia for Tabou, Côte d'Ivoire. For close to eight years she lived in exile before spontaneously returning back home to Liberia in 1998. “My passion for hu...

Aid organizations and the Ethiopian government have started a large-scale vaccination program for Somali refugee children in Ethiopian camps hoping to counteract outbreaks of disease among the malnourished population. The United Nations said it was alarmed Saturday after suspected cases of measle...

British aid agencies are preparing to expand their activities in Somalia to help some of the 10 million people at risk of starvation in East Africa. Relief operations have been constrained by the security situation in Somalia. But Islamist militant group al-Shabab last week announced it was li...

MOGADISHU, Somalia, August 18 (UNHCR) – Kadija is in shock. Over the past two weeks, the 32-year-old Somali has lost her livelihood, fled her rural home and ended up in a dismal settlement in one of the most dangerous cities on earth. "I don't have my own house and my children can't go out and pl...

On 11 August Kakuma was inundated with torrential rains which caused flooding in various parts of the camp and surrounding areas. Many refugee shelters were destroyed and dykes and river banks were severely eroded in a number of locations placing refugees and humanitarian workers at risk. A vehicl...

A mission is being organized from 24 August to 2 September to assess the key protection and displacement concerns in relation to the current drought facing the Turkana region of Kenya. The mission will assess the capacity of UNHCR and partners to respond to the protection concerns of those affected...

Planning is underway for a mission by UNHCR colleagues in early October to undertake an assessment of the environmental situation in the Turkana region of Kenya with the aim of developing a long-term strategy for mainstreaming climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction into UNHCR operatio...

UNHCR, together with Ethiopian authorities and other partners is working on a response to the immediate needs of Somali refugees who arrived recently through the Gode area, 250km north-east of Dollo Ado. The refugees number more than 17,500. Priority activities are life-saving interventions such as ...