Somalia: ‘Somaliland will stop receiving new Somali refugees from Yemen’

Somaliland will no longer allow the entry of Somali refugees escaping the violence in Yemen, a minister of the breakaway region declared on Sunday.
The Interior minister of the self-declared independent state Ali Mohamed Waranadde said in a press conference that the administration is not capable to cope with the influx of the refugees. He accused the International aid organizations of ‘’failing’’ to provide aid to the refugees of Somali origins.
‘’From today onwards we will not accept any Somali refugees coming from Yemen because the International organizations are not willing to provide the necessary aid to them and we are not capable of giving them assistance.
‘’ I don’t know why the aid organizations have refused to assist the Somali refugees. They are assisting only the refugees of other origins,’’ he said.
Somaliland unilaterally declared independence in 1991 when Somalia’s central government in Mogadishu collapsed. The international community does not recognize Somaliland as a separate country.
An estimated 10,000-plus refugees have arrived in Puntland and Somaliland regions located in Northern Somalia since 1st of April when the conflict erupted in the impoverished middle-eastern country.
The refugee influx has put huge pressure on the regions’ already scarce resources and health systems, and has also contributed to rising tensions in administrations vulnerable to security breaches and instability.
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