The 1988 war in the north and the 1991 collapse: who fled and where

Show who took part and what each event meant for unity From May 1988 to 1992, war in the north and then the collapse of the central state drove the largest Somali exodus. This page holds the detail; the overview of every wave is at [Why did Somalis leave, and when?](/en/diaspora/why-and-how-somalis-left/).

Why did people flee the north in 1988?

War broke out in May 1988 between the government and the Somali National Movement (SNM) (HRW World Report 1990). Human Rights Watch said the army drew no line between civilians and fighters, and destroyed livestock and water reservoirs.

By early 1990, an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 people had been killed in the north (HRW World Report 1990). "Nearly half a million" had fled the country, most to Ethiopia, others to Djibouti and Yemen. Sizeable groups reached England and Wales.

The US Government Accountability Office studied why refugees fled to Ethiopia and how much of Hargeisa was destroyed (GAO, NSIAD-89-159, May 1989). A Mogadishu research institute writes that the bombing drove more than 600,000 Somalis to Ethiopia (Heritage Institute, 2018, in Somali). The two figures differ, and both are given here.

The 1988 war forced "almost the entire population of the north" to seek refuge abroad or in the south (Ahmed, 2000). Many joined the older Somali community in Britain, Ahmed notes.

What is recorded about the killings of civilians in the north, 1987-89?

Investigators, courts and researchers have documented killings of unarmed civilians in the north, mostly members of the Isaaq clan, during the government's war with the SNM. Their figures differ widely, and each is given here with its source.

US State Department study, 1989. Robert Gersony interviewed refugees and displaced people for the State Department's Bureau for Refugee Programs; his report "Why Somalis Flee" is dated August 1989 (Yale Genocide Studies Program). The State Department's 1989 human rights report, drawing on it, said "at least 5,000 unarmed civilians were purposefully murdered" by the armed forces between May 1988 and March 1989 (US State Department, Country Report 1989, via ecoi.net). The same report said about 90 percent of Isaaq homes, businesses and property in Hargeisa were destroyed or severely damaged.

The Gersony report wrote that "the appearance that victims were selected for … killings principally because of their ethnic identity is unmistakable", as quoted by Yale (Yale Genocide Studies Program). The State Department describes 300 interviews; Yale-linked summaries give 252.

Africa Watch, January 1990. Africa Watch, part of Human Rights Watch, published "Somalia: A Government at War with Its Own People" in January 1990 (University of Halle open-data record). Human Rights Watch put the dead in the north at an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 between May 1988 and early 1990 (HRW World Report 1990).

UN-requested forensic work, 1997. At the request of the UN Independent Expert on Somalia, Physicians for Human Rights examined more than 100 known or alleged grave sites around Hargeisa on 11 April 1997 (Center for Justice and Accountability). It identified two mass graves, at Malko Durduro elementary school and at Badhka, with remains apparently bound with rope or cloth, the same source says.

UN-commissioned investigation, 2001. A 2001 UN report on the attacks concluded that "the crime of genocide was conceived, planned and perpetrated by the Somalia Government against the Isaaq people", as quoted by The Nation (The Nation, 22 October 2018). The report was commissioned jointly by the UN human rights office and the UN coordination unit for Somalia.

Higher estimates. Somaliland officials and its War Crimes Investigation Commission say as many as 200,000 people were killed and buried in mass graves, and the commission lists 226 known mass graves (Al Jazeera, 6 February 2014). A forensic expert working there told Al Jazeera that estimates range from 60,000 to 200,000 and that "nobody really knows". The Nation reports more than 40,000 killed in the bombing and ground attacks on Hargeisa (The Nation, 2018).

Court records. In May 2019 a US federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, found former army colonel Yusuf Abdi Ali liable for torturing a young herder in the north in 1987 (Center for Justice and Accountability; VOA, May 2019). It awarded US$400,000 in compensatory and US$100,000 in punitive damages, and rejected an attempted-killing claim; an appeals court upheld the judgment in 2021. Former defence minister and prime minister Mohamed Ali Samantar accepted a default judgment in a related US civil case on the eve of trial (Center for Justice and Accountability).

Scholars and the Yale Genocide Studies Program use the word genocide for these events (Yale Genocide Studies Program). No international tribunal has been set up (Al Jazeera, 2014).

What was Hartisheikh?

Hartisheikh was a camp in eastern Ethiopia that held more than 250,000 Somali refugees at its height (UN News, July 2004). Most came from Gabiley and Hargeisa. UNHCR closed it in 2004 when the last 719 residents went home; more than 230,000 had returned since April 1997.

Why did people leave when the central state collapsed in 1991?

Fighting and hunger. Fighting in Mogadishu from November 1991 to February 1992 killed about 14,000 people and injured 27,000 (HRW World Report 1993). Famine and disease caused up to 300,000 deaths by mid-1992, the same report says.

People went in every direction:

1. Kenya:

   UNHCR built the first three Dadaab camps between October 1991 and June 1992, for up to 90,000 people (UNHCR, 2012).

2. Ethiopia:

   a camp at Hartisheikh, near the border, had taken in people from the north since 1988 (UN News, 2004).

3. Yemen:

   about 60,000 Somali refugees were there by August 1992 (HRW World Report 1993).

4. United States:

   visas for Somali refugees began in 1992 (MNopedia).

What happened to minority communities?

Minority communities fled too, often with no armed group to protect them.

1. Somali Bantu (Jareer):

   in 1991 one family walked from their farm to Kismayo, then 14 nights along the coast to Kenya (Smithsonian, 2004). From 1992 they lived in Marafa camp near Malindi, then Kakuma.

2. Somali Bantu resettlement:

   the United States planned to resettle up to 12,000 Somali Bantu, and the first families arrived in May 2003 (Smithsonian, 2004).

3. Somali Bantu in Tanzania:

   about 3,000 refugees of Zigua ancestry were settled at Chogo and later naturalised (UNHCR).

4. Benadiri (Reer Xamar):

   many were merchants who had no militia for protection, and most fled to Kenya (Minority Rights Group, 2018).

5. Benadiri in Yemen:

   500 Benadir families from the southern coast had lived in Yemen since 1992 (The New Humanitarian).

6. Bajuni:

   islanders from near Kismayo fled in 1991 to Jomvu camp near Mombasa, closed in late 1997 (Nurse, review of 2000 fact-finding report).

What else has been reported?

1991 to 2000

1. Exile in 1992:

   UNHCR head Sadako Ogata told a Geneva conference on 12 October 1992 that about one million Somalis, almost 20% of the population, had fled to neighbouring countries, and that UNHCR assisted close to 700,000 of them (UNHCR statement, via Refworld).

Related pages

• Why did Somalis leave, and when? (overview)
• Famines, fighting and drought: Somalis who left from 1992 to now
• Which routes did Somalis take to leave?
• Somali refugees by the numbers
• Kenya
• Ethiopia
• Yemen
• Collapse, 1991-2000
• The Siad Barre era, 1969-1991
• Minority communities
• Internal displacement
• Remittances in numbers
• Carried the banner since 1895

Sources

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2. Minnesota Historical Society. "Somali and Somali American Experiences in Minnesota". MNopedia. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/somali-and-somali-american-experiences-minnesota. Checked 2026-11-12.
3. Human Rights Watch. "World Report 1990: Somalia". HRW, 1991. https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1990/WR90/AFRICA.BOU-09.htm. Checked 2026-11-12.
4. US General Accounting Office. "Somalia: Observations Regarding the Northern Conflict and Resulting Conditions" (NSIAD-89-159). GAO, 4 May 1989. https://www.gao.gov/products/nsiad-89-159. Checked 2026-11-12.
5. Mahad Wasuge. "Tahriibka Dhalinyarada Soomaaliya" (in Somali). Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, Mogadishu, 2018. https://heritageinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Tahriibka-Dhalinyarada-Soomaaliya.pdf. Checked 2026-11-12.
6. UN News. "Once world's largest refugee camp in Ethiopia now closed". United Nations, 1 Jul 2004. https://news.un.org/en/node/108122. Checked 2026-11-12.
7. Human Rights Watch. "World Report 1993: Somalia". HRW, 1993. https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1993/WR93/Afw-08.htm. Checked 2026-11-12.
8. UNHCR. "Dadaab, world's biggest refugee camp, 20 years old". UNHCR press release, 2012. https://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/unhcr-fn-s-flykting-kommissarie/news/dadaab-world-s-biggest-refugee-camp-20-years-old-36270. Checked 2026-11-12.
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18. Ismail Einashe and Matt Kennard. "In the Valley of Death: Somaliland's Forgotten Genocide". The Nation, 22 Oct 2018. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/in-the-valley-of-death-somalilands-forgotten-genocide/. Checked 2026-11-12.
19. Al Jazeera. "Investigating genocide in Somaliland". 6 Feb 2014. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2014/02/06/investigating-genocide-in-somaliland/. Checked 2026-11-12.
20. Center for Justice and Accountability. "Warfaa v. Ali" case page. https://cja.org/what-we-do/litigation/warfaa-v-ali-col-tukeh/. Checked 2026-11-12.
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