Objections surface over Somalia Population Estimation Survey results

Somalia’s autonomous state of Puntland has said the final report of the Population Estimation Survey launched yesterday of Somalia ‘’Inaccurate’’.
Launched in June 2012, Population estimation survey of Somalis undertaken in most of the 18 states in the country shows the total number of the population 12,316,895. It was carried out by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in collaboration with the Federal government of Somalia.
Speaking to Journalists on Wednesday, Puntland’s Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Ali Ahmed Fatah said that the census figures were ‘’false’’.
‘’The survey was displayed last year first but we had agreed on a review and another recounting process with the government and UNFPA because the number was not correct. The current minister made things faster and its absolutely inaccurate,’’ he said in his Press Conference.
Mr Fatah added that the population census of Puntland 4,284,633, which is bigger than the overall number stated in the survey.

The Population estimation survey has drawn wide criticisms from local elders and civil rights groups, saying it could create tensions and undermine the country’s recovery from the over two decades of civil war.
The February 1986 census launched by the former military-led government of Somalia recorded it at 7,114,431. In 1997, during the civil war the mid-year population increased from 7,875,000 in 1985 to 10,217,000, according to United Nations estimates.
Since 1991, an estimated 350,000 to 1,000,000 Somalis had died because of more than two decades conflicts.
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