Local Editor
An estimated 4,000 Somali refugees are living in alarming conditions in the Yemeni capital Sana’a, and their living situations have worsened since the war erupted early last year between the Houthi Ansarullah revolutionaries and the regime of fugitive President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The refugees face extreme poverty; no jobs, no food security, no rent-free shelters nor health facilities to receive them. Many have been struggling to pay their rent of insanitary rooms, while few families can afford payment and instead sleep on some backstreets or join others in small rooms.
The refugees also have s shortage of water, electricity and integration into labor market. The refugees have no alternative as their living situations have worsen because of the ongoing economic crisis following the eruption of the civil war in March last year.
"We (the refugees) have no rent-free accommodation or shelter in Sana’a as most of Yemenis have recently hesitate to rent us rooms or houses because we cannot afford payment," explained 55-year-old Abdel Rahman Al Zaylaiee, the chairman of the Somali refugees’ community in Sana’a, who came to Yemen nearly 16 years ago.
Al Zaylaiee complains that aid from humanitarian agencies has stopped, particularly after the war.
"Since the war began in March 2015, we received financial aid only one time in the beginning of each year from the UNHCR," Al Zaylaiee said. "If you have a family, you received 150 USD, but if you are a single you got only 50 dollars... only one-time payment a year," Al Zaylaiee adds.
Somali refugees fled conflicts in their homeland and made very dangerous journeys through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to seek a better life in Yemen or neighboring oil-rich Gulf countries.
An estimated 200,000 Somali refugees are living in several Yemeni cities, according to the latest 2015 statistics by the UNHCR. UNHCR says that more than 26,000 Somali refugees have fled violence in Yemen and returned to Somalia, mostly to Mogadishu.
Many refugees have taken Yemen as a crossing road to Saudi Arabia, but after the war erupted in the Yemen-Saudi joint borders between the Houthi fighters and Saudi troops, which backed the Hadi regime, the borders were closed and most infiltrators lost their lives during the shootings.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
