Aw Barre (Aw-barre) refugee camp, Somali Region of Ethiopia

Aw Barre is one of three refugee camps run from UNHCR's sub-office in Jijiga, in Ethiopia's Somali Region (UNHCR, Melkadida and Jijiga update, March 2020). The other two are Kebribeyah and Sheder (same source). ODI places the camps in Fafan zone (ODI and DRC, October 2020). For all Somali refugee camps in the region, see Somali refugee camps.

What camps stood near Jijiga before Aw Barre?

Over 600,000 refugees from Somalia reached the Jijiga area in 1989 and the early 1990s, UNHCR says (UNHCR, March 2020). By the early 1990s there were nine camps there (ODI and DRC, October 2020).

In 1994, Ethiopia's refugee agency ARRA, backed by the army, held a one-day count in all nine camps (ODI and DRC, 2020). The official camp population fell 70%, from 628,000 to 184,900, ODI reports, citing a 2002 UNHCR study (same source).

After repatriation from 1997 to 2005, only Kebribeyah camp stayed open, with over 16,000 refugees (UNHCR Jijiga factsheet, February 2013). Today's Aw Barre camp stands on the site of the former Teferi Ber camp, which closed in 2001 (ODI and DRC, 2020).

When and why did Aw Barre open?

In December 2006, after new fighting in Somalia, 833 refugee families sought asylum at Hartisheikh (UNHCR Jijiga factsheet, 2013). A new site was found at Aw Barre to house them (same source). UNHCR's January 2018 camp profile says the camp opened in July 2007 (UNHCR Aw-barre camp profile, January 2018).

ODI says the new arrivals came mainly from the south of Somalia, travelling to Jijiga by way of Gode (ODI and DRC, 2020). They were housed in Kebribeyah until Aw Barre opened in 2007 and Sheder in 2008 (same source).

Aw Barre was full by early 2008 (UNHCR, 2013). From March 2008, asylum seekers were sent to the Lafaissa transit centre, and Sheder camp opened in May 2008 (same source). ODI says later arrivals were settled near Dollo Ado, in the south of the region, instead (ODI and DRC, 2020).

How many people have lived in Aw Barre?

• Start of 2009: about 40,390 in the three Jijiga camps together, ODI reports, citing UNHCR (ODI and DRC, 2020).
• 28 February 2013: 13,419 in Aw Barre (UNHCR Jijiga factsheet, 2013).
• January 2018: 12,031, of whom 56.1% were children (UNHCR camp profile, January 2018).
• 29 February 2020: 12,120 (UNHCR, March 2020).
• July 2020: 12,136 (UNHCR Jijiga update, July 2020).
• June 2022: 12,903 (UNHCR Operational Data Portal, Aw-barre).
• December 2023: 13,536; December 2024: 12,717; December 2025: 13,348 (same source).
• August 2026: 14,118 (same source).
• 31 October 2026: 18,569 people in 2,770 households (same source).

The portal shows a rise of 4,451 people between August and October 2026 (UNHCR ODP, Aw-barre). The portal gives no reason for the change.

Who lives in Aw Barre now?

On 31 October 2026, 18,566 of Aw Barre's refugees came from Somalia, and 3 came from other countries (UNHCR ODP, Aw-barre). Children under 18 numbered 8,166, or 44.0%, and 2,535 were under five (same source). There were 477 people aged 60 or over (same source).

UNHCR's 2018 profile says many refugees had family members living with them who were not registered (UNHCR, January 2018).

What schools and health care does Aw Barre have?

UNHCR's January 2018 profile lists (UNHCR, January 2018):

• Schools: one primary school, three early-years centres, a government secondary school, two alternative basic education centres, a vocational centre and a youth centre.
• School meals: school feeding for primary pupils, and biscuits for early-years children.
• Health: a health centre that serves both refugees and the host community, with maternity care, vaccination and HIV services.
• Partners: ARRA ran camp management, primary health care, nutrition and primary schools. DICAC ran pre-school and secondary education.

UNHCR reported in March 2020 that a delay in replacing the camp's doctor was affecting primary health care (UNHCR, March 2020). In 2020, a COVID-19 isolation centre was set up inside the Aw Barre health centre (UNHCR, July 2020).

UNHCR's 2026 material names Ethiopia's government refugee agency as the Refugees and Returnees Service (RRS) (UNHCR Ethiopia map, May 2026). On 6 March 2024, RRS, the National ID Program and UNHCR began issuing digital identity documents to refugees (same source).

What do nutrition surveys show?

• December 2017: acute malnutrition among young children was 5.4% in Aw Barre (UNHCR SENS survey, 2018).
• 2019 to 2020: acute malnutrition stood at 10.7% and severe acute malnutrition at 3.7%, above the 2% public health threshold (UNHCR, March 2020).

What about water, shelter and food?

UNHCR gives these figures for Aw Barre:

• Water, 2018: 18.5 litres per person per day, with 1,674 household latrines and 1,538 family showers (UNHCR, January 2018).
• Water, 2020: over 20 litres per person per day, from two boreholes and a backup (UNHCR, March 2020).
• Shelter, 2018: 312 durable shelters built, while 1,541 families still lived in traditional or emergency shelters (UNHCR, January 2018).
• Layout: three zones of 108 blocks, each block holding 16 households (same source).
• Food: cash replaced cereal rations from October 2017. In January 2018, 2,394,104 birr was paid out to 11,852 recipients (same source).
• Cooking fuel: the group GAIA supplied ethanol for household cooking (same source).

In June 2022, a broken borehole pump cut water in Aw Barre and led to tension with the host community, UNHCR reported (UNHCR Ethiopia operational update, June 2022). UNHCR and its partner IMC trucked at least 80,000 litres a day to host communities (same source).

How does the camp affect Aw Barre town?

ODI and the Danish Refugee Council studied the Jijiga camps and their hosts in 2018 and 2019 (ODI and DRC, 2020). Their findings on Aw Barre:

• Water: the Aw Barre water bureau estimated the town got 10% of the shared supply, not the planned 25%. The Lutheran World Federation disputed this.
• Revenue: ARRA and its partners added about 600,000 birr a year to Aw Barre's local revenue.
• Planning: officials discussed moving management of the water systems for both camps in the woreda to the local government.

The same study says the region's water bureau gave Aw Barre and Kebribeyah lower priority for funding because of the camps (same source).

What has been written about Aw Barre?

• Carver, Gedi and Naish, Somali regional report 2018–2019 (ODI and DRC, 2020), on the camps and their host towns (ODI).
• UNHCR camp profile (2018), factsheets (2013, 2020) and nutrition surveys give the camp-level data on this page (UNHCR).
• UNHCR camp map (2010) shows the camp's schools, health centre, mosque and registration centre (UNHCR, Awbare Refugee Camp map).

Related pages

• Somali refugee camps
• Ethiopia
• The 1988 war in the north and the 1991 collapse
• Somalis leave, 1992 to 2026
• Somali refugees by the numbers
• Dadaab and Kenya's Somali refugee camps

Sources

1. UNHCR. Operational Data Portal: Aw-barre Refugee Camp, monthly population 2022 to 2026 and demographics, 31 October 2026. https://data.unhcr.org/en/country/eth/173. Checked 12 November 2026.
2. UNHCR Ethiopia. Aw-barre Refugee Camp: camp profile, January 2018. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/62691. Checked 12 November 2026.
3. UNHCR Sub-Office Jijiga. Factsheet with population statistics as of 28 February 2013. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/31751. Checked 12 November 2026.
4. UNHCR Ethiopia. Somali refugees in Ethiopia: Melkadida and Jijiga situational update, March 2020. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/74686. Checked 12 November 2026.
5. UNHCR Ethiopia. Somali refugees in Ethiopia: Jijiga region situational update, July 2020. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/78155. Checked 12 November 2026.
6. UNHCR Ethiopia. Operational update, June 2022. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/94534. Checked 12 November 2026.
7. UNHCR, WFP and ARRA. Standardised Expanded Nutrition Survey (SENS): Awbarre, Kebribeyah and Sheder camps, December 2017 (report May 2018). https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/63529. Checked 12 November 2026.
8. UNHCR Ethiopia. Refugees and asylum-seekers map, 31 May 2026. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/122997. Checked 12 November 2026.
9. Carver, F., Gedi, A. A. and Naish, D. Somali regional report 2018–2019: refugee and host community context analysis. ODI and DRC, October 2020. https://cdn.odi.org/media/documents/somali_regional_report_2018-2019_refugee_and_host_community_context_analysis.pdf. Checked 12 November 2026.
10. UNHCR Ethiopia. Awbare Refugee Camp map, as of 10 June 2010. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/31482. Checked 12 November 2026.