The humanitarian situation in Somalia over the last few years has increasingly worsened, even beyond conditions in the 1990s. 3.6 million people are in need of aid today, and Somalia hosts 1.2 million internally displaced people. Recent news stories focus on fighting between government forces and Islamist insurgents, on the many piracy incidents along the Somali coast and the Gulf of Aden, and on the role of the African Union in Somalia. In European media, there is a further focus on a number of integration-related problems associated with Somali refugees living in Europe. Recently there has also been an increased interest in the recruitment of young Somali refugees in the West.
There has been very little interest in the situation of those who find themselves in what we call ‘protracted refugee situations’. Somalia’s most hidden population is stuck in refugee camps like those in Dadaab, and this blog aims to address their situation.
