SOMALIA / DISPLACED

UNHCR obtains satellite images showing the movement of large numbers of people from Mogadishu. In less than three years, UNHCR estimates that over 400,000 people have moved here, 12 thousand arriving in the last month alone. UNHCR

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:50
• Production Date: 1 October 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: SOMALIA
• MAMS Id: U101001b

Description

STORY: SOMALIA / DISPLACED
TRT: 1.50
SOURCE: UNHCR / DIGITALGLOBE 2007
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 1 OCTOBER 2010 / FILE

Shotlist

FILE / 10 MARCH 2010, JAZEERI REGION, MOGADISHU. SOMALIA

1. Med shot, women in street with traffic
2. Various shots, Building destroyed and with bullet shells

1 OCTOBER 2010, GENEVA SWITZERLAND

3. Wide shot, exterior Palais des Nations
4. Wide shot, press conference room
5. Med shot, hands taking notes
6. Tilt down, from satellite imagery projected on screen to Melissa Fleming
7. Various shots, satellite Imagery OF Afgooye Corridor/Mogadishu
-Afgooye Corridor before October 2007 (DigitalGlobe 2007, provided under AAAS)
-Afgooye Corridor before 1 October 2010 (DigitalGlobe 2010, provided under EC/ESA GSC-DA)
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Melissa Fleming Head Communications Service, UNHCR:
“There is a massive concentration of people here, outside of Mogadishu, right on the outskirts of Mogadishu and that the population is growing by the thousands every week.”

FILE / 20 SEPTEMBER 2010, HALANE, JAZEERI REGION, SOUTHWEST MOGADISHU. SOMALIA

9. Various shots, huts in makeshift camp on a beach

1 OCTOBER 2010, GENEVA SWITZERLAND

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Melissa Fleming Head Communications Service, UNHCR:
“The conditions people are living in are precarious. First of all they have to struggle to build a shelter themselves. UNHCR has almost no access to their area. They are on their own. They have to struggle to find food and take care of their health. Schooling is almost non-existant. It is a very difficult situation.”

FILE / 10 MARCH 2010, JAZEERI REGION, MOGADISHU. SOMALIA

11. Various shots, streets

Storyline

Mogadishu, described by some as the most dangerous city in the world, is increasingly become a deserted city.

Its residents have been fleeing the fighting for years, some to other countries but others no further than a few kilometers, creating entirely new urban areas.

At a press conference, today in Geneva, UNHCR released satellite imagery which details the pattern.

Just north-west of the capital, in an area called the Afgooye Corridor, thousands temporary shelters and building have appeared.

In less than three years, UNHCR estimates that over 400,000 people have moved here; 12 thousand have arrived in the last month alone creating a city of displaced.

It is now the third largest urban centre in Somalia.

SOUNDBITE (English) Melissa Fleming Head Communications Service, UNHCR:
“There is a massive concentration of people here, outside of Mogadishu, right on the outskirts of Mogadishu and that the population is growing by the thousands every week.”

Makeshift ‘cities’ are appearing elsewhere. This is Halane in Jazeeri, southwest of the capital. Small huts made of cloth and plastic dot the landscape.

Here and across the country, the displaced are on their own. The security situation means that virtually no assistance can reach them.

SOUNDBITE (English) Melissa Fleming Head Communications Service, UNHCR:
“The conditions people are living in are precarious. First of all they have to struggle to build a shelter themselves. UNHCR has almost no access to their area. They are on their own. They have to struggle to find food and take care of their health. Schooling is almost non-existant. It is a very difficult situation.”

With the fighting in the capital showing no signs of abating, the exodus will only continue making these ill equipped new cities more and more permanent.