UNICEF

Somali children play in a child-friendly space in the Kobe refugee camp in the Dollo Ado area of Ethiopia’s Somali Region. The UNICEF-supported space is run by the international NGO Save the Children US. Some 27,000 Somali refugees currently shelter in the camp.

In June 2012 in Ethiopia, refugees from conflict and drought in Somalia continue to arrive at camps in the south-eastern Dollo Ado area of Somali Region. While Ethiopians also continue to suffer the effects of the worst drought to hit the Horn of Africa in 60 years – which hit hardest in July and August, 2011 – Somalia remains the worst affected. By early July of this year, the number of Somali refugees in the five major camps and a transit centre settlement in Dollo Ado had grown to 160,000; more than two thirds are children; one quarter are under five years of age. Child mortality and malnutrition rates have improved significantly in the camps since the height of the crisis, but are expected to worsen due to decreased crop and livestock production: the result of below-average rains from February through May. UNICEF has joined with the Ethiopian Administration for Refugees and Returnee Affairs (ARRA) and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) – as well as with other UN, NGO and community partners – to help provide essential services in the areas of health, nutrition, education, water and sanitation and child protection. This includes support for feeding programmes, immunizations, safe water and hygiene practices, early childhood development, school supplies, family tracing, and support for unaccompanied children.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2012-0597/Jiro Ose

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