United Nations: Violence in Somaliland has forced more than 185,000 people to move

In Somaliland, a self-declared independent region of Somalia, violence has compelled more than 185,000 people to flee their homes, according to the local UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha ).

In a statement, Osha stated that “more than 185,000 people have been displaced,” with 89% of those being women and children, many of whom have no other place to go but the shade of a tree or schools that have closed as a result of the violence.

The international community did not recognize Somaliland’s 1991 declaration of independence from Somalia, a former British colony. Since then, this 4.5 million-person region has remained poor and remote but has also experienced a fair amount of stability as Somalia battled the Shebab islamist insurgency.

However, tensions in Somaliland have been notable recently. Armed forces from the area and militias obedient to the central government of Somalia engaged in combat on February 6 in Las Anod. This bordering community, which is important for trade, has changed hands several times recently.

Ocha claims that 57 people were confirmed dead and 401 injured at the Las Anod General Hospital, which is one of the city’s four hospitals. The victims’ identities are still unknown. A ceasefire was announced by Somaliland’s government a few days later, on February 10. On the 12th, however, they claimed that militias had attacked their soldiers.

Conflicts have persisted despite the ceasefire, according to Ocha, whose research was done over the weekend. Authorities in Somaliland have made accusations, but Mogadishu hasn’t directly addressed them.

The ceasefire is welcomed, and the Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre called for “immediate access for humanitarian aid” on Friday. The need for emergency assistance is now even more urgent due to the thousands of displaced people, he wrote on Twitter.

At a press conference held on Friday in Geneva, the UNHCR reported that “more than 60,000 Somalis, mostly children and women,” had made it from the Las Anod region to the southeast of neighboring Ethiopia.

According to Olga Sarrado Mur, a spokeswoman for UNHCR, “Exhausted and traumatized, they arrived with very few belongings, taking only what they could carry.” She continued, “On average, 1,000 people continue to enter Ethiopia every day,” pointing out that the Somali region of Ethiopia, which is experiencing a record drought, has few resources.