As part of a two-day mission to Ethiopia (9-10 Feb.), UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner Alexander T. Aleinikoff and the Chief Executive Officer of IKEA Foundation, Mr. Per Heggenes, visited Kobe and Bur Amino camps on 10 February 2012. The two officials appreciated the progress being made to address Ko...

JIJIGA, Ethiopia, April 10 (UNHCR) – Chinese actress Yao Chen has concluded her first visit to Africa as UNHCR's honorary patron for China by hailing the courage of Somali refugees and the generosity of their hosts in Ethiopia. Yao Chen travelled to Ethiopia last week to meet with Somali refugees...

Somalia conflict keeps Ethiopia's Dolo Ado refugee camp busy – audio slideshow

Heavy rains have hit Somali refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, damaging tents, flooding roads and affecting aid delivery. This comes as the refugee population in southern Ethiopia swells to more than 150,000. In recent weeks, Dollo Ado in southern Ethiopia has been receiving a weekly average of...

After spending the last five days with Bob Geldof, I feel that I know his opinion about everything. His forceful rhetoric - delivered at one hundred miles per an hour and sprinkled with a selection of profanities - is what first helped to make the famine in Ethiopia a global issue during the 1980...

Photographer Juergen Schrader recently took these panoramic, 360 degree shots in Dollo Ado's Melkadida camp, which is home to approximately 40,000 Somali refugees: http://bavaria360.de/melkadida/melkadida.html Patients line up to avail of German NGO Humedica's medical services in a camp health p...

Dollo Ado — A year after the onset of the Somalia famine, Aden Yusef Kabey can laugh at the pain he endured. He has regained the body weight he lost over the past year. He can walk, eat and sleep. "I've come back from the dead," says the 22-year-old. "Now I want to have a future and take full adv...

HITSATS, Ethiopia, June 13 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency has opened a new camp in northern Ethiopia to house the increasing number of Eritrean refugees entering the country. A total 776 Eritrean refugees have already been transferred to Hitsats Camp, which can house up to 20,000 refugees. "This...

UNHCR’s partner AHADA are busy installing 310 solar powered street lights thanks to funding from the IKEA Foundation and ECHO. CEO of the IKEA Foundation, Mr Per Heggenes checked out the lights on a recent visit to the camp. The lights are already reportedly creating a greater sense of safety and co...

This small, remote border town is rapidly becoming one of the focal points of the drought emergency in the Horn of Africa. Two thousand or so Somali refugees who are now arriving here each day from across the border are forcing a long-running refugee assistance operation to be ramped up to deal w...