Bosaso harbor officials said that in the last three weeks at least 255 Somali refugees reached the seaport fleeing from Yemen unrest.
As unrest and anti-government protests have intensified in Yemen in the last few weeks, Somalis who had migrated to Yemen to escape violence in their native country began returning home over the weekend.
At least 61 Somali refugees, including women and children, have reached Bosaso, Puntland's commercial port, by boat.
Puntland is a semi-autonomous region of Somalia. Bosaso is about 1,500 kilometers north of Mogadishu.
“Somalis in Yemen are in desperate living conditions; moreover, Yemeni people began persecuting and harassing us, saying you are working with [Yemen President Ali Abdullah] Saleh regime as mercenaries to fight against the demonstrators,” said Abu-Bakar Abdi-aziz Osman in a telephone conversation with All Headline News.
“After that, we decided to return to our homeland as the country is political, clan conflicts and severe drought that struck many parts in south central Somalia” Osman explained.
Sumaya Awil told AHN that she had been working in a house in Aden as a maid to provide for her 1-year-old son and herself.
Crying because of the ordeal she experienced, Awil said the father of the family told her to leave.
“Though he was a good man, he feared his sons or daughters to harm me. And this has come after Somali refugees in Yemen were accused of being hired by Yemen government to suppress the protestors,” she recounted.
Bosaso harbor officials said that in the last three weeks at least 255 Somali refugees reached the seaport fleeing from Yemen unrest.
However, Somalia’s government last week denied reports suggesting the Yemen government hired Somali refugees as mercenaries to suppress anti-government protestors.
Source: www.allheadlinenews.com
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