• Officials are expediting return of the displaced to their villages of origin

Jemila Seid, 46, arrived in the eastern city of Dire Dawa along with many others here on September 2017, after conflict broke out along the border between Oromia and Somali regions. Like so many of the residents in the makeshift camp found in Dire Dawa’s Millennium Park, she says she fled the ethnic conflict in Somali Regional State capital, Jigjiga. She arrived here with two of her children, who were in grade three and five. Here they have no access to formal education facilities, which means it’s been two years now that they have been missed out of class. “We had a good life there. Here, we are crawling like a dog,” she says. “I would like to go back to my former village,” she says. But she adds that returning there at the present time is unthinkable. She doesn’t know when it will be.

At the peak of the crisis a year ago, over 13,000 ethnic Oromo and Somali originating from the Somali and Oromo regions have taken refuge in different makeshift settlements found in the town, fleeing ethnically motivated atrocities. Both the Oromia and Somali regions say they have been facilitating for the voluntary return to their home but still there are more than 7,000 displaced persons seeking safety in the town. Among them, the five thousand are sheltered in Millennium Park, located in Rift Valley University area, officials say. Most of those living in the settlement are women, children and the elderly. The displaced persons have long complained of congregating in difficult conditions while waiting for more permanent resettlement. “We are packed tightly together. There is a shortage of drinking water, the hygiene is poor. We are forgotten here. They dumped us here and they told us it will take a few months and we will be provided with houses but there is nothing yet,” Yasinao Abdela, 38, who has lived in the camp for the past year and eight months told Ethiopia Observer.

“One of the hurdles they faced was providing schooling for more than 40 percent of the children who don’t go to school.”

The Dire Dawa administration, a charter city with a much lower budget and insufficient capacity than the Oromia and the Somali regions, has been struggling to host an influx of displaced persons and shoulder a part of the burden. Many were living without access to sufficient food, water or sanitation. A few months ago, the administration decided to build 600 houses to settle the displaced persons but was told to scarp the idea by officials of the Ministry of Peace who insist on facilitating the return of the displaced people to their home regions, part of the government’s political agenda. Head of the Disaster Risk Management Bureau at the Dire Dawa administration, Haribu told DW Amharic that the administration has been trying to provide assistance to the displaced persons but one of the hurdles they faced was providing schooling for more than 40 percent of the children who don’t go to school. “This was because we were waiting in the hope that they would be returned to their former villages in three or four months. But time dragged on and the children missed school,” he said.

The displaced are free to come, says the president of the Somali region, Mustafa Omar, who spoke at a forum in Adama town this weekend. Insisting that peaceful relationships have resumed between the two people, he said the administration would provide help for the displaced to settle permanently. There is not yet explanation if the displaced could reclaim their homes or properties.

Since the past week, some have already started returning to their former villages, as part of a state-organized return, to what some describe as a fragile and uncertain future. More than 600 people settled in Dire Dawa’s Millennium Park, were transported to Babile, a town in the east of Harar and Jigjiga on ten big buses last week. Another round of return is planned for next week, according to sources from the area. Humanitarian officials stress that any return should be voluntary but among those who left, some of them say they did so because the officials told them they would get no more assistance if they remained in the camp.

In some cases, the return appears to be voluntary, while in others people are being ordered back. Three returnees who spoke with Ethiopia Observer said they did not wish to return to their former community as a result of continued insecurity and destroyed property. They said officials threatened to cut off their aid if they refused.

Government officials dispute the account but they have made no secret of their desire to ensure the humanitarian needs once the displaced return to their former area or provide them the necessary support to integrate elsewhere.

Main Image: Dire Dawa city center by Frédéric Garnier

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