ERITREAN,
ETHIOPIAN & SOMALI
REFUGEE CRISIS
Displacement-driven child wasting is a serious concern in the Horn of Africa.
Over 20 million children in the region have been deeply affected by the worst drought seen in 40 years, which have devastated crops and livestock.
AT A GLANCE
WHO
Eritrean,
Ethiopian and Somali
Children
WHY
Droughts, civil war and brutal dictatorship
NEEDS
Food
Water
Medical Care
Nutrition Screening
Education
Relief
Shelter
Syria
THE CAUSE
Poor governance, war, and climate change-fueled
environmental disasters underpin this refugee crisis.
n the 2000s, gradual erosion of civil rights hurled the new African country of Eritrea into a dictatorship. Eritrea had no legislature, and no freedom of speech or the press. Eritrean families began fleeing mass roundups, forced labor and rampant human rights abuses. In 2020, the Eritrean dictatorship joined forces with Ethiopia against a common enemy: regional militants in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. During the ongoing conflict, Eritrean forces have committed serious human rights violations not only against Tigrayans, but against Eritrean refugees seeking safety in Ethiopia. In neighboring Somalia, climate-induced food insecurity and a civil war between the government and an al-Qaeda-aligned group has forced over 700,000 Somali people to flee.
IMPACT ON CHILDREN
The vast majority of those fleeing this crisis are children.
Four out of every five refugees from the Horn of Africa are children, driven out by the region’s violent conflicts, persecution, and worsening environmental disasters.
They face malnutrition, starvation, lack of clean water, and limited healthcare, even in neighboring host countries.
They also grapple with the psychological trauma of witnessing killings and other atrocities, losing loved ones, and embarking on perilous journeys to uncertain safety.
Eritrean and Somali refugee children in Ethiopian refugee camps live with constant fear and hunger, with no resolution in sight. They face indiscriminate violent attacks by Eritrean forces, and an aid blockade in the region prevents essential supplies from relief organizations from reaching many of them.
THE CRISIS TODAY
The plight of refugees in the region is one of the most dire in the world,
with food blockades, war crimes and starvation calling for immediate and sustained attention from the international community.
As the dictatorship in Eritrea continues its repressive and violent regime, over 500,000 Eritreans are now refugees. Those who had sought safety in Ethiopia are indiscriminately targeted by their home country’s soldiers as the brutal war rages on.
Additionally, 3 million Ethiopians are now internally displaced due to the war. In 2023 the crisis in the Horn of Africa was exacerbated by a catastrophic drought that, in Somalia alone, forced a record 1 million people to flee their homes.
Thankfully, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) works tirelessly to provide education, shelter, and legal assistance to these refugees, and to those under siege by Eritrean soldiers’ food blockade in Tigray.
The UNHCR also tirelessly works to provide essential supplies for refugee families in host countries, such as water and sanitation systems.
SOURCES
Refugees International
UNHCR
Human Rights Watch
Save the Children