Ethiopia: Refugees fear for their fellow new arrivals in Dhadhaab Camp ,Kenya By Ahmed AbdiMembers of Ogaden Refugee community Committee (ORCC ) in Dhadhaab are worried about the conditions of newly arrived refugees from Ethiopian -occupied Ogaden Region.Representatives from Ogaden Refugee Community Committee held a meeting in Xagardheere camp aiming at to show the World a large number of newly arrived refugees that live under difficult conditions for lacking food, water and shelter.The Meeting which ORCC of Ogaden Refugee organized was invited the local media namely Somali National Television (SNT) and Kenya’s independent radio Star FM .The newly arrived refugees told the media that they were raped, tortured ,killed members of their families and confiscated their livestock and/or their belongings by the Ethiopian Regime. Some of the refugees displayed scars on their bodies as an evidence of being Ethiopian victims. These refugees come after UN Refugee Agency limited its activities at the registration centers in the Camps that made (them)the newly arrivals to receive ration cards. Speaking with the Somali National TV, ORCC Chairperson, Dahir Mohammed Ali, said: “At least 2,000 unregistered and undocumented Somalis from Ogaden Region that have no ration cards are in the Camps”. The Representative further said even though they always do their best to work voluntarily for the profit of the refugees and selflessly extended any help they (Refugees) needed but very concerned about the UN Refugee Agency’s limited activities at the registration centers.”These refugees have no relatives in abroad that can send money for food and they cannot return their own homeland ,Ogaden region for fear of execution ;they simply stay indoors without eating three times a day, therefore its international obligation to feed and protect the refugees”, added Mr. Ali.Kenya hosts the highest number of refugees from Ogaden region. Thousands of Somalis from Ogaden region fled to Somaliland, Djibouti and Kharez/Sana’a ,Yemen, while many refugees are urban refugees that do not go to UNHCR offices for registration for fear of not to be registered or lack of knowledge about the issue.
