Somalia -  IOM, in close coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, this week conducted its first evacuation of 95 Somali nationals stranded in Yemen.

The evacuation flight left Sana’a for Djibouti during the pause in the conflict on 17 May and, after overnighting in Djibouti, continued to Mogadishu’s Aden Abdulle International Airport, arriving on the afternoon of 18 May.

The returnees were received by Somalia’s First Lady, Sahra Omar Hassan, IOM Somalia Chief of Mission Gerard Waite, and officials from UNHCR and the Federal Government of Somalia.

On arrival in Mogadishu, IOM registered the returnees and provided them with food, water and temporary accommodation. Vulnerable returnees will also receive onward transportation and reinsertion assistance. Two returnees who required urgent medical attention were referred to a Mogadishu hospital.

“Life was becoming unbearable in Sana’a. There was no electricity and water, food was scarce, security was a nightmare. You did not know when a bomb from high above would hit your house at night. It is better to be back home,” Abdi Idle, one of the returnees, told IOM.

IOM Somalia and its partners have registered a total of 7,183 returnees arriving in Somalia through Somaliland and Puntland since the escalation of the conflict in Yemen in March 2015. At the end of 2014, according to UNHCR, there were an estimated 244,204 Somali refugees in Yemen.

Somalia, which is still recovering from over two decades of protracted conflict, will need more help to cope with an influx of returnees, according to Waite. “IOM, together with its humanitarian partners, is working in coordination with the government to address the humanitarian needs of Somalis and third country nationals fleeing the Yemen conflict,” he said.

IOM Somalia is already providing reception assistance including water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, healthcare and onward transportation to Somalis and third country nationals fleeing the crisis.

For more information please contact IOM Somalia. Craig Murphy, Tel: +254 717 711 822, Email: cmurphy@iom.int or Feisal Mohamud, Tel: +252 616 967 435 or +254 721 290074, Email:  famuhamud@iom.int