When Somalia hosted refugees: the camps of 1978 to 1990

Somalia hosted refugees before Somalis became refugees abroad. After the Ogaden war of 1977-78, hundreds of thousands of people from Ethiopia lived in UN camps across Somalia. Most were ethnic Somalis and Oromo, and some stayed thirteen years.

UNHCR's own statistics record 600,000 refugees from Ethiopia in Somalia in 1978, 2,000,000 in 1980 and 460,000 in 1990 (UNHCR Refugee Data Finder). How many people really lived in the camps was disputed for the whole decade.

Why did people flee from Ethiopia into Somalia?

War and drought drove them. The Ogaden war ended with Somalia's defeat in March 1978; see The Ogaden war of 1977. Ethiopian forces then fought insurgents in the Ogaden and attacked villages and herds (Africa Watch, Evil Days, 1991).

In 1977-78 relief agencies counted more than 1,000 arrivals a day, mostly women and children (Library of Congress Country Study, Ethiopia). In March 1981 UNHCR reported about 4,000 crossings a day, up from 2,000 in October 1980 (Christian Science Monitor, 25 Mar 1981). About 112,000 people arrived in January 1981 alone, the same report said.

The 1984-85 famine in Ethiopia sent about 100,000 more people into Somalia (Library of Congress Country Study).

Who were the refugees?

Most were ethnic Somalis from Ethiopia's Ogaden region (Christian Science Monitor, 2 Jul 1980). About 30 percent of refugees in the southern camps were Oromo from Bale, Sidamo and Arussi, the same report said.

A 1981 survey also listed Eritrean, Tigrayan and Afar refugees (Waldron, Cultural Survival Quarterly, 1981). Ninety percent of camp residents were women and children, and the whereabouts of most men and herds were unknown (same source).

In a 1989 US State Department study, refugees in the northern camps named their clans or peoples (Gersony, Why Somalis Flee, 1989):

• Ogaden: 29 percent of those interviewed.
• Oromo: 26 percent.
• Gadabuursi: 19 percent.
• Others: Geri, Sheekhaal, Hawiye, Abaskul, Akisha, Bartire and Dir, 26 percent together.

Nearly all came from the Degeh Bur and Harar areas of eastern Ethiopia, and 92 percent had no schooling (Gersony, 1989).

How many refugees were there?

Each source gave a different figure. All are given here, with who said them.

• Somali government, 1980: "more than 2 million," said the Information Minister (CS Monitor, 1980).
• A UN official, 1980: about 1.5 million inside and outside camps (same source).
• Camp registration, 1980: about 725,000 in 26 camps (same source).
• Registration, 1 March 1981: 1,316,845 in more than 30 camps, plus 500,000 to 700,000 outside them (Cultural Survival, 1981).
• UK government, March 1981: about 800,000 in camps and up to 600,000 outside (Hansard, House of Lords, 25 Mar 1981).
• Donors, 1983: 700,000 to 800,000, against a government claim of 1.3 million (Africa Watch, 1991).
• Late 1980s: a UN survey gave 450,000 to 620,000, and US Catholic Relief Services about 430,000 (Library of Congress Country Study).

Aid was planned on a figure of 700,000, while aid officials privately estimated fewer than 400,000, wrote a UNHCR officer (Ambroso, UNHCR, 2002). He explained the difference by many herders quietly going home.

UNHCR's yearly series shows the same planning number (UNHCR Refugee Data Finder):

• 1977: 500,000. 1978: 600,000. 1979: 1,175,000.
• 1980: 2,000,000. 1981 to 1983: 700,000 each year.
• 1985: 812,000. 1987: 840,100. 1988: 834,000.
• 1989: 769,630. 1990: 460,000.

Where were the camps?

Most camps stood along rivers in Gedo, Hiiraan and the north-west (CS Monitor, 13 Aug 1980). The US study counted 41 UN camps in Somalia, twelve of them in the north (Gersony, 1989).

Camps named in the record include:

• North-west: Agabar, Las Dhure, Sabaad, Dam, Tug Wajale, Arapsio (Arabsiyo), Adiades, Bixin, Biyoley, Darimaan and Dawaale (Gersony, 1989).
• South: Ali Matan, Ban Mandule, Bur Dhubo, Dorialey, Halba, Malka Hidday and Suriye (same source).
• Gedo: the border town of Luuq (Lugh Ganane) was a crossing point in 1981 (CS Monitor, 1981).

Agabar, near Hargeisa, held 94,000 people in August 1980 (CS Monitor, 1980). Las Dhure, about eight miles away, held more than 25,000, the same report said.

How did people live in the camps?

Poorly at first. Adults received about 1,300 calories a day, mostly maize or wheat flour, and water was often trucked in (Cultural Survival, 1981). Up to 60 percent of children tested positive for tuberculosis (same source).

At Agabar in 1980, deaths fell from about 20 a day to about 4 after child feeding began in May (CS Monitor, 1980). Women walked up to ten miles for firewood. Shelters were huts of wood, reed, cardboard and tarpaulin.

Newer camps were better laid out. Las Dhure had sections of 400 families, each with a health centre and an elected camp committee (CS Monitor, 1980). By 1988, refugees in the north lived mainly on UNHCR rations, plus day labour and selling firewood (Gersony, 1989).

Somali families also took in refugees at their own cost (CS Monitor, 1980). Refugees of Somali clans could choose aid in the camps or settling as Somali nationals (Ambroso, 2002).

Who paid for the camps?

UNHCR appealed on 4 March 1980 for over US$120 million for 750,000 camp refugees (CS Monitor, 1980). Two-thirds was for about 160,000 tonnes of food. Twenty-seven voluntary agencies from thirteen countries ran camps with the government (Cultural Survival, 1981).

Britain's record shows its share:

• 1978: £60,000 of relief supplies, then £750,000 for UNHCR in Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti (Hansard, 22 Nov 1978).
• 1980-81: £1 million, including 5,000 tonnes of food (Hansard, Lords, 25 Mar 1981).
• 1980 to 1983: cash grants to UNHCR of £500,000, £1,000,000 and £500,000 (Hansard, 21 Feb 1983).

Food did not always reach the camps. Relief sources said 30 to 60 percent of stocks were lost before arrival (CS Monitor, 1981). A 1986 US audit found only 12 percent of 1984 emergency food reached the hungry (Askin, MERIP, 1987).

Were refugees drafted into the army?

Yes, according to the US State Department study. Of 30 refugees who had lived in southern camps, 24 saw the army take refugees by force (Gersony, 1989). They reported 35 such round-ups from before 1982 to March 1989.

This broke the rules that protect refugees, and UNHCR protested "vigorously", the study says (Gersony, 1989). Of 48 men interviewed in the north, 11 said they had fought with the WSLF or OLF in Ethiopia.

What happened to the camps when war came in 1988?

They were caught in the war between the government and the Somali National Movement (SNM). The US study attributed dozens of attacks on northern camps to the SNM from late May 1988 (Gersony, 1989). It estimated at least 400 unarmed refugees were killed.

The same study found that the army killed at least 5,000 unarmed Isaaq civilians from May 1988 to March 1989 (Gersony, 1989). It found both sides violated the camps' protected status. The government armed some camp residents and drew several hundred or more into militia operations.

Africa Watch reported in 1990 that armed refugees from Sabaad camp killed more than 60 Isaaq herders in August 1990 (Africa Watch, 12 Sep 1990). It blamed the government's policy of arming refugees. These acts belong to the armed forces and groups each study names, not to any whole community.

What happened to the refugees after 1990?

Most went back to Ethiopia. In 1989-90 UNHCR still assisted about 460,000 Ethiopian refugees in Somalia, while a March 1990 appeal for a lasting solution waited for funds (UNHCR annual report 1991, Refworld).

When the central state collapsed in 1991, the return became "self-repatriation under duress" (Ambroso, UNHCR, 2002). Between 600,000 and 800,000 people went back from 1991 to 1993. About 550,000 received a UNHCR cash grant and six months of food on arrival.

UNHCR's count of refugees from Ethiopia in Somalia fell to 480 by 1992 (UNHCR Refugee Data Finder). Ethiopia let returnees regain identity papers easily (Ambroso, 2002). The same years saw Somalis themselves flee to camps in Ethiopia; see Somali refugee camps.

What else has been reported?

• Camps named in studies: a medical study examined children in the Jalalaqsi refugee camps in late 1980 (Prehospital and Disaster Medicine), and another describes Italian medical teams in three camps in Qoryooley district, Lower Shabelle (Prehospital and Disaster Medicine). In July 1980 the Christian Science Monitor counted about 725,000 registered refugees in 26 camps, mostly in Gedo, Hiiraan and the northwest, almost all along rivers (CSM, 2 July 1980).

Related pages

• Why did Somalis leave, and when?
• Somali refugee camps today
• Ethiopia
• The Ogaden war of 1977
• The Siad Barre era, 1969-1991
• Collapse, 1991-2000
• Hiiraan
• Gedo
• Woqooyi Galbeed
• Carried the banner since 1895

Sources

1. UNHCR. Refugee Data Finder API, refugees in Somalia by country of origin, 1975-1995. UNHCR. https://api.unhcr.org/population/v1/population/?limit=100&yearFrom=1975&yearTo=1995&coa=SOM&coo_all=true. Checked 2026-11-12.
2. Robert Gersony. "Why Somalis Flee: Synthesis of Accounts of Conflict Experience in Northern Somalia". US Department of State, Bureau for Refugee Programs, August 1989. https://cja.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Gersony-Why-Somalis-Flee-Aug-1989.pdf. Checked 2026-11-12.
3. Africa Watch. "Evil Days: Thirty Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia", Ogaden chapter. Human Rights Watch, 1991. https://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/e/ethiopia/ethiopia.919/c5ogaden.pdf. Checked 2026-11-12.
4. Africa Watch. "Somalia: Evading Reality". News from Africa Watch, 12 Sep 1990. https://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/s/somalia/somalia909.pdf. Checked 2026-11-12.
5. Edward Girardet. "Desert war refugees inundate Somalia". Christian Science Monitor, 2 Jul 1980. https://www.csmonitor.com/1980/0702/070243.html. Checked 2026-11-12.
6. Edward Girardet. "Refugees eke out marginal existence in dry Somalia". Christian Science Monitor, 13 Aug 1980. https://www.csmonitor.com/1980/0813/081344.html. Checked 2026-11-12.
7. Edward Girardet. "Somalia: 4,000 refugees daily". Christian Science Monitor, 25 Mar 1981. https://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0325/032556.html. Checked 2026-11-12.
8. Sidney R. Waldron. "Somali Emergency: 2,000,000 Refugees". Cultural Survival Quarterly 5(2), Summer 1981. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/somali-emergency-2000000-refugees. Checked 2026-11-12.
9. UK Parliament. HL Deb 25 Mar 1981 vol 418 cc1159-60, "Somalia and Ethiopia: refugee problem". Hansard. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1981/mar/25/somalia-and-ethiopia-refugee-problem. Checked 2026-11-12.
10. UK Parliament. HC written answer, 22 Nov 1978, "Ogaden war refugees". Hansard. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1978/nov/22/ogaden-war-refugees. Checked 2026-11-12.
11. UK Parliament. HC Deb 21 Feb 1983, "Somalia". Hansard. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1983/feb/21/somalia. Checked 2026-11-12.
12. Guido Ambroso. "Clanship, Conflict and Refugees: An Introduction to Somalis in the Horn of Africa". UNHCR, March 2002. https://arcadia.sba.uniroma3.it/bitstream/2307/4150/1/Clanship_%20conflict%20and%20refugees_An%20introduction%20to%20Somalis%20in%20the%20Horn%20of%20Africa.pdf. Checked 2026-11-12.
13. Library of Congress Federal Research Division. "Ethiopia: Refugees, Drought, and Famine". Country Study, via countrystudies.us. https://countrystudies.us/ethiopia/46.htm. Checked 2026-11-12.
14. UNHCR. "Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 1991". Via Refworld. https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/unhcr/1992/en/42173. Checked 2026-11-12.
15. Steve Askin. "Food Aid Diversion". MERIP, 11 Mar 1987. https://www.merip.org/1987/03/food-aid-diversion.md. Checked 2026-11-12.
16. "Nutritional state of children in Jalalaksi refugee camps, Somalia". Prehospital and Disaster Medicine. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/prehospital-and-disaster-medicine/article/nutritional-state-of-children-in-jalalaksi-refugee-camps-somalia/2C16949D7470FDF308DD26267385DD2B. Checked 2026-11-12.
17. "Italian aid in Qorioley refugee camps, Somalia". Prehospital and Disaster Medicine. https://core-prod.cambridgecore.org/core/journals/prehospital-and-disaster-medicine/article/italian-aid-in-qorioley-refugee-camps-somalia/0CBF782FBA825BE9DC949B592AFAB346. Checked 2026-11-12.