Displaced groups “nervous” of Bula Hawa

Humanitarian agencies have told IRIN that there is concern over the future of some 7,000 Somalis displaced by inter-clan fighting in Bulo Hawa in the north of Gedo Region, southern Somalia. The refugees have been staying with friends and relatives in the northern Kenyan border town of Mandera after fighting broke out on 30 March, leaving at least 30 people dead. Kenyan local government officials this week asked the refugees to go home, and said that the situation across the border had stabilised. The Kenyan authorities did not want a permanent camp established, humanitarian sources said. However, doctors at the Mandera hospital have been treating Somalis recently injured by land mines on the Dolo-Luq and Malkaarey roads in northern Gedo, where four people were killed this week.

People had started returning to Bulo Hawa, and some shops and businesses had reopened, humanitarian sources said. However, many of the displaced were “commuting” between the border and the town, nervous of the security situation, the source said. Reconciliation efforts led by elders have so far proved unsuccessful.

Some of the displaced from Bulo Hawa have also congregated in an area outside Bulo Hawa, on the Somali border, joining an already established group of about 3,000 Rahanweyn from Bay and Bakool regions, southern Somalia. The original group was displaced in October 1999, and has received some plastic sheeting, food rations, latrines and a medical health post. Local sources said that fighting in March had erupted between militia supporting the Transitional National Government (TNG) in Mogadishu, and those loyal to the local administration, headed by District Commissioner Nur Mattan. Militia supporting the TNG have accused the local administration of being “outsiders” supported by neighbouring Ethiopia. Ethiopian military personnel have been seen recently in the Somali Bulo Hawa area, including a senior military officer, local sources said. The Ethiopian government has strenuously denied having a military presence in southern Somalia, and has said that military action taken at the border is for national security.