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December 15, 2019 at 04:00PM
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Earthquake
Yemen Unrest Makes Somalia Unlikely Safe Haven for Refugees
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Yemen Unrest Makes Somalia Unlikely Safe Haven for Refugees
Four years of a brutal civil war in Yemen has forced more than 4.3 million people to leave their homes. Many of the Yemenis desperately seeking safety are turning to neighboring Somalia.
Ranked as one of the 10 poorest countries in the world by the United Nations (UN), Somalia is considered one of the least politically stable countries, and faces a continued threat from al-Shabab jihadists.
Many Somalis who were living in the country during the 1980s conflict and the 1991 civil war outbreak fled to then-relatively stable Yemen. But the refugee movement has been reversed since late 2014, when a devastating military confrontation in Yemen, between the government and the Houthi rebels, spiraled into the world's most severe humanitarian crisis.
One of the Yemeni refugees, Saleh al-Amodi, said he made it to Somalia in 2014 after a risky journey, in which he sailed on a small boat from the Gulf of Aden in southwest Yemen to Bosaso port in northeastern Somalia.
"I was lucky I made it safely to Somalia. A number of people have died in the journey through the sea after their boats sank. Sometimes clashes take place just before the coastal area of Yemen, and a missile might hit one of the fragile boats, sinking its passengers," al-Amodi told VOA.
Weeks before he could leave, Al-Amodi sent his wife and two children to safety in Saudi Arabia. By the time he tried to join them in, Saudi authorities had already closed their borders. The family have been separated since then.
"Anyone who tries to illegally cross to neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia or Oman will be shot or arrested. I haven't seen my family for almost five years," al-Amodi said.
'We are only seeking some dignity'
Al-Amodi was placed in a refugee camp in Khahda district, which is near the Somali capital, Mogadishu, shortly after his arrival. He said the camp can barely secure food, health care and education for Yemeni refugees.
"We are only seeking some dignity. The situation in Yemen is dangerous, and the situation here in Somalia is terrible. We depend on the support of local aid groups and individual donations that don't meet the needs of the refugees. We don't know what to do," al-Amodi said.
Somalia is a member of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which obligates the country to allow entry in asylum-seekers. However, refugee groups said the country needs major support and capacity building in order to provide proper care for those who have been displaced.
Mohammed Abi, a Somali physician working with U.K.-based Muslim Aid in the Yemeni refugee camp of Khahda district, told VOA that the refugees are almost on the brink of starvation, with minimal access to food, water and medical aid.
"They can't even ask people for help because they don't speak the Somali language. We are suffering to provide medical aid to the 500 refugees in this camp," Abi said.
According to the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), at least 14,000 Yemeni refugees have sought shelter in Somalia since March 2015. The agency Thursday said it has worked with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to also help 5,087 Somali refugees return home from Yemen due to increased instability in the Persian Gulf country.
Kathryn Mahoney, a public information officer at UNHCR, told VOA the reverse refugee influx from Yemen to Somalia is an indicator of devastation Yemen has seen from years of violence.
"Yemen is the world's largest humanitarian crisis - it is a life-threatening situation for all, refugees included. The situation has deteriorated so severely, that people have to make an impossible decision: stay in the world's largest humanitarian crisis or go to one of the world's largest refugee-producing countries," Mahoney said.
Somalis in Yemen
Despite the conflict, an estimated 266,000 refugees and 10,000 asylum-seekers, mainly from Somalia, are believed to remain in Yemen.
Some Somali refugees who are living in Yemen say the country works as a transit station toward richer and more stable countries, such as to Saudi Arabia.
Abdulkadir Mohamed Ahmed, a Somali father of seven, told VOA his family had to change camps in Yemen four times in five years due to the conflict.
"I was living a good life," Ahmed said. He said he had been running a clothing and shoe business in Mogadishu before being forced to flee with his wife and children during the height of the country's civil war in 1992.
Now settled in Al Kharaz refugee camp, west of Yemen's port city, Aden, Ahmed said two of his children have died: a 9-month-old son due to dehydration and a 19-year-old daughter due to illness. One of his sons embarked on a dangerous journey to Europe, reaching Switzerland, where he is now in limbo with no refugee status.
Ahmed said most Somali refugees feel trapped in Yemen, suffering from the lack of services in the camps and always at risk of being caught in the middle of the government-Houthi cross fire. Despite the difficulties, the prospects of returning to Somalia are unclear, as many have no means to support their families once they return.
"We don't just want to be repatriated, we want to be resettled. If we get a small room and toilet in Somalia, I will go back there," Ahmed said.
The Yemen conflict escalated after Iran-backed Houthis overran Sanaa, Yemen's capital, from the Saudi-backed government in September 2014. In 2015, the conflict turned into a proxy war when an international coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched a military and economic campaign against the Houthis.
December 15, 2019 at 12:25PM
Houses of Worship Attacked With Deadly Frequency in 2019
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Houses of Worship Attacked With Deadly Frequency in 2019
On Dec. 1, a band of assailants opened fire on worshippers at a small-town Protestant church in Burkina Faso, an impoverished West African country where the Christian minority is increasingly a target of attacks. The victims included the pastor and several teenage boys; regional authorities attributed the attack to "unidentified armed men" who, according to witnesses, got away on motorcycles.
The slaughter merited brief reports by international news outlets, then quickly faded from the spotlight — not surprising in a year where attacks on places of worship occurred with relentless frequency. Hundreds of worshippers and many clergy were killed at churches, mosques, synagogues and temples.
A two-week span in January illustrated the scope of this somber phenomenon. In Thailand, a group of separatist insurgents attacked a Buddhist temple, killing the abbot and one of his fellow monks. In the Philippines, two suicide attackers detonated bombs during a Mass in a Roman Catholic cathedral on the largely Muslim island of Jolo, killing 23 and wounding about 100. Three days later, an attacker hurled a grenade into a mosque in a nearby city, killing two Muslim religion teachers.
The worst was yet to come.
On March 15, a gunman allegedly fueled by anti-Muslim hatred attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 51 people. The man arrested for the killings had earlier published a manifesto espousing a white supremacist philosophy and detailing his plans to attack the mosques.
At a national remembrance service two weeks later, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealanders had learned the stories of those impacted by the attacks — many of them recently arrived immigrants.
"They were stories of those who were born here, grew up here, or who had made New Zealand their home. Who had sought refuge or sought a better life for themselves or their families," she said. "They will remain with us forever. They are us."
On Easter Sunday — April 21 — bombs shattered the celebratory services at two Catholic churches and a Protestant church in Sri Lanka.
Other targets, in coordinated suicide attacks by local militants, included three luxury hotels. But Christian worshippers at the three churches — including dozens of children — accounted for a large majority of the roughly 260 people killed.
The victims at St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo included 11-month-old Avon Gomez, his two older brothers and his parents.
The day's biggest death toll — more than 100 — was at St. Sebastian's, a Catholic church in the seaside town of Negombo. It's known as "Little Rome" due to its abundance of churches and its role as the hub of Sri Lanka's small Catholic community.
The attacks surprised many in the predominantly Buddhist country, where the Christian community totals about 7% of the population and has long avoided involvement in bitter ethnic and religious divides.
Six days after Easter, more than 9,400 miles (15,000 kilometers) from Sri Lanka, a gunman opened fire inside a synagogue in Poway, California, as worshippers celebrated the last day of Passover. A 60-year-old woman was killed; an 8-year-old girl and two men, including the Chabad of Poway's rabbi, were wounded.
Some congregation members said the slain woman, Lori Kaye, blocked the shooter by jumping in front of rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, whose two index fingers were injured.
The man charged with murder and attempted murder in the attack, John T. Earnest, could face the death penalty if he is convicted of murder, although prosecutors haven't yet said whether they will pursue capital punishment.
At a court hearing in September, prosecutors played a 12-minute recording of Earnest calmly telling a 911 dispatcher that he had just shot up a synagogue to save white people from Jews.
The attack occurred exactly six months after 11 people were killed at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest assault on Jews in U.S. history.
An additional anti-Semitic bloodbath was narrowly averted in October when an armed assailant tried to blast his way into a synagogue in Halle, Germany, where scores of worshippers were attending services on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism.
Unable to break through a locked door, the gunman went on a rampage in nearby streets, killing two people and wounding two others.
Authorities said the 27-year-old German man who has confessed to the attack had posted an anti-Semitic screed before the assault and broadcast the shooting live on a popular video game site.
In contrast to the Poway and Halle attacks, where authorities have identified suspects and motives, some of the worst attacks on houses of worship unfold without arrests or claims of responsibility.
In October, for example, more than 60 people were killed in a bombing during Friday prayers at a mosque in the village of Jodari in eastern Afghanistan.
No group claimed responsibility and authorities offered conflicting explanations of how the bombing was carried out.
One common element of all the attacks: Dismay that many people of faith now have reason for apprehension as they gather for worship.
"No one should have to fear going to their place of worship," said California Gov. Gavin Newsom after the Poway attack. "No one should be targeted for practicing the tenets of their faith."
December 15, 2019 at 10:31AM
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