Somalia is one of the poorest and most devastated countries in the Horn Africa. The country is in a constant state of humanitarian crisis and has been the scene of one of the world’s largest displacement of population over the last years.

According to the UN, the number of people requiring humanitarian and emergency livelihoods support almost doubled during 2008, increasing by 77% from 1.8 million in January to 3.2 by July. In general, the food security situation in all livelihood zones remained as classified during the post Deyr 08/09 assessment (FSAU April 09). Cases of malnutrition among children below the age of five have also dramatically increased. At least 200,000 children under five years of age are known to be acutely malnourished in Somalia, of which 60,000 are estimated to be severely malnourished.

Recurrent droughts and floods have critically affected harvests over the last few years and have contributed to this large-scale humanitarian crisis. This is compounded by the political instability prevailing since the collapse of the central government in 1990 and the lasting insecurity have forced thousands of people to leave their residence and prevents them from maintaining their habitual livelihood.

Although civilians have been displaced in all parts of the country, in the recent years most of the displacement has taken place in the troubled South and Central regions. Some 1.1 million people are currently displaced in those regions. The Northern regions of Puntland and Somaliland respectively host 100,000 and 80,000 internally displaced people (IDP).

Due to the growing insecurity in the country, the number of Somali refugees has also significantly increased in the past few years. Currently, there are some 257,977 Somali refugees in the three Dadaab refugee camps. In Yemen, there are 126,000 Somali refugees, with 30,000 registered in 2008 alone.

DRC has been working with Somalis and other displaced and conflict-affected populations in Somalia since 1998.