General Situation
Ongoing conflict in the last 19 years continued to generate mass movements of Somali Refugees fleeing to neighboring countries (583,755) as at the end of April 2010, mainly hosted in Kenya, Yemen, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Tanzania and Uganda, and internally displaced people (1.4 million) settled mainly in Somaliland and South-Central regions. In 2009, over 120,000 Somalis sought refuge in neighboring countries. Since the eruption of violence between government forces and armed opposition groups in May 2009, over a quarter of a million people were displaced from their places of residence in Mogadishu.
The collapse of the state, lawlessness and anarchy in the country, led to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today, translating into unacceptable suffering of innocent civilians who see their basic rights violated every day.
Since the fall of the Siad Barre's regime in 1991, Somalia fell in the hands of different militias commanded by powerful warlords, who divided the country along clan lines. Since then, there have been at least 15 attempts to re-establish a national government, the last of which brought to power Sheik Shariif Ahmed, at the end of January 2009. Although the establishment of the new Transitional Federal Government was perceived with optimism by the Somali population and the International Community, Shariff is facing overwhelming challenges, as armed opposition groups continue deadly attacks on the Government and African Union peacekeeping forces, and still control large parts of Somali territory.
Somalia is a country divided in three regions: Somaliland (a self-proclaimed Independent state, not internationally recognized), Puntland (a semi-autonomous Region) and the South Central Region.
The whole of Somalia continues to be in security phase IV (Programme suspension), with Mogadishu and other areas on Phase V (evacuation).This has a very significant impact on the operations of UNHCR and the humanitarian community as a whole, especially in terms of the limited access to the population of concern and the limited number of staff members who are allowed to operate in filed locations.