ETHIOPIA / SOMALI REFUGEES

In a desert like corner of southern Ethiopia 1000 kilometers from the capital, refugee camps like Dolla Ado are struggling to keep up with the new arrivals from Somalia. The numbers are alarming and almost overwhelming for aid agencies including UNHCR. The camps are filling up including one that opened only weeks ago, with 20,000 new arrivals it is nearing capacity. UNHCR

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:05:02
• Production Date: 16 July 2011
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: ETHIOPIA; SOMALIA
• MAMS Id: U110716a

Description

STORY: ETHIOPIA / SOMALI REFUGEES
TRT: 5.02
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: SOMALI / NATS

DATELINE: 7 JULY 2011, DOLLA ADO CAMP, ETHIOPIA

Shotlist

1. Various shots, aerial views of the camp (Transit center)
2. Various shots, people walking in the camp
3. Close up, hands going through a dish of polenta (maize flour cooked with milk cooked)
4. Various shots, family having a meal
5. Close up, young girl
6. Various shots, Safiala Abdullahi with her family walking in the camp
7. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Safiala Abdullahi, Somali refugee:
“I became sick on the way and therefore the child had nothing to eat because I had no breast milk so he died of hunger and dehydration.”
8. Med shot, Safiala with her daughter
9. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Safiala Abdullahi, Somali refugee:
“We called on passers-by to helped us dig a grave. We buried the child and left.”
10. Various shots, Safiala and children drinking water from a wooden bowl
11. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Safiala Abdullahi, Somali refugee:
“The child I’m carrying is my daughter’s. On our way here we lost each other and still now I don’t know where she is.”
12. Wide shot, Various Shots High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres looking newly arrived refugees
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, High Commissioner for Refugees:
“Our heart is broken when mothers tell us that after having walked for days to reach safefy they have lost their children on the way. To see children dying and doctors not being able to address the situation, because it is too late and to see that we have a lot to do together.”
14. Med shot, Safiala Abdullahi with baby goingto into health centre
15. Tilt up, Safiala on a weigh scale (she is 30 Kgs)
16. Med shot, Safiala’s heart beat being checked
17. Tracking shot, Abdullahi walking to his hut
18. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Abdullahi Hamed Mohamed, Somali refugee:
“I told my other children and their mother that since our child had died they should not cry, God would help us walk faster and catch up with the rest of the groups.”
19. Med shot, Abdullahi his family by their hut

Storyline

In a desert like corner of southern Ethiopia 1000 kilometers from the capital, refugee camps like Dolla Ado are struggling to keep up with the new arrivals.
The numbers are alarming and almost overwhelming for aid agencies including UNHCR.

The camps are filling up including one that opened only two weeks ago.
With 20,000 new arrivals it is nearing capacity.

Safiala and her seven children arrived a week ago. It took them days to reach the camp. On the way tragedy struck.

SOUNDBITE (Somali) Safiala Abdullahi, Somali refugee:
“I became sick on the way. My child had nothing to eat because I had no breast milk so he died of hunger and dehydration.”

A widow, she put her child to rest, as best she could.

SOUNDBITE (Somali) Safiala Abdullahi, Somali refugee:
“We called on passers-by who helped us dig a grave. We buried the child and left.”

The trip had an added ordeal; on the way Safiala was separated from her eldest daughter.

SOUNDBITE (Somali) Safiala Abdullahi, Somali refugee:
“The child I’m carrying is my daughter’s. On our way here we lost each other and still now I don’t know where she is.”

Antonio Guterres, the High Commissioner for Refugees said 2011 was a year of crises, but this one was the worst.

SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
“Our heart is broken when mothers tell us that after having walked for days to reach safefy they have lost their children on the way. To see children dying and doctors not being able to address the situation, because it is too late and to see that we have a lot to do together.”

Abdullahi Hamed Mohamed also lost his youngest son. The father of 11 says he simply ran out of food to feed everyone.

SOUNDBITE (Somali) Abdullahi Hamed Mohamed, Somali refugee:
“I told my other children and their mother that since our child had died they should not cry, God would help us walk faster and catch up with the rest of the groups.”

Safiala weighs only 30 kilos, slowly with some assistance she and her children are recovering some of their strength but their fate is uncertain.

The decades long conflict in Somali now made worse by the drought has brought a dramatic fall in food production. At the same time food prices have gone up leaving thousands like these new arrivals no choice but to become refugees in another country.