Refugee repatriation from Ethiopia continues

Some 4,000 Somali refugees returned home in two convoys from Daror camp (8.44 N; 44.42 E) in eastern Ethiopia on Saturday and Sunday, 22 and 24 December, the UN refugee agency told IRIN on Wednesday. Most of the refugees in Daror are from the Burao area, in the Toghdeer Region of northwestern Somalia.

The returns opened the final phase of repatriation from the camp, which the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expects to close by the end of the year, an official stated.

With the departure of over 900 families in the past week, the Somali refugee population of Daror now stands at just 2,437, and all volunteers for repatriation should be able to repatriate during the last week of December.

Returning refugees receive an assistance package to help them get started in their former homes, including basic household items and nine months' supply of food.

If the closure of Daror happens before the end of the month, it would become the third of eight Ethiopian camps for Somali refugees the agency has officially shut this year; Teferiber and Darwanaji camps were closed back in June.

The five sites remaining host a total of 66,876 refugees, with 11,642 in Hartisheik, 11,634 in Kebribeyah, 19,849 in Camaboker, 9,811 in Rabasso and 13,940 in Aisha, according to UNHCR statistics.

Since the repatriation of volunteer returnees to northwest Somalia in 1997, over 181,000 individuals have left the camps around Jijiga in eastern Ethiopia, according to the agency.

This year's figure now stands at 47,782 and, before the end of December, will likely surpass the previous high of 47,864 returns recorded in 1998.

A further 11,743 people - Ethiopian nationals of ethnic Somali origin who have lived in camps since returning from exile in Somalia - have been assisted by UNHCR to return to their communities of origin in Ethiopia, the agency stated on Wednesday.