Hiiraan Online
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
BOSSASO (HOL)---Somali refugees who fled their country to Yemen for war and poverty started returning home due to the escalating violence in Yemen and the Saudi-led airstrikes.
Officials in Puntland, a semiautonomous region in northern Somalia said Tuesday they received dozens of Somalis who fled from Yemen by sea at the port of Bossaso, the region’s commercial hub.
Abdisamad Mohamed, the governor for Bari region in Puntland said the government would resettle the returning refugees. He also said the region would assist those willing to voluntarily return to their certain regions.
The influx of Somali refugees returning home come at a time people from their host country of Yemen also fled to Somalia for refuge.
Most of the refugees fled Yemeni’s third largest city of Taiz where Saudi-led air strikes trying to stem advances by Iranian-allied Houthi fighters.
In the capital Sanaa, which has been under Houthi control since September, the United Nations said most of its 100 international staff were evacuated. Airport officials said up to 250 other foreigners working for international oil companies and NGOs also flew out to Ethiopia and Djibouti.
Despite the fact that Somalia is still dangerous due to the deadly insurgency led by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab group, the fleeing refugees have arrived in the peaceful breakaway region of Somaliland and the neighboring semiautonomous region of Puntland.
United Nations high commission for refugees said it ‘s prepared to assist the refugees arriving by sea along the Gulf of Aden.