Somalia: Puntland says receives more than 700 fleeing Yemen civil war

Somalia’s Northeastern state of Puntland said on Wednesday that it received as many as 721 people since Yemen civil war flare-up, Deputy Minister of Interior Abdullahi Haji Warsame told reporters in the state capital of Garowe that 721 refugees including Yemenis, Ethiopians, Kenyans, Djiboutians and Somalis reached Puntland by boat over the last few days. “We have so far received 721 migrants; most of them arrived at Bossaso seaport and close to 100 others in boats landed in the coastal towns of Tohin, Bargal and Gumbah,” said Warsame. The large influx-721-229 of whom are women crossed Red Sea into Somalia by boat, seeking safer haven as crises continue to mount in the poorest Arab nation, Yemen. Continuing, Puntland’s Deputy Minister for Internal fairs noted: “The numbers compose different nationals, some of them are Yemenis, also there are Kenyans, Ethiopians, Djiboutians and Somalis are composed of Puntland natives and those who fled from south-central regions”. UNHCR revealed that it is coordinating preparations to receive up to 100,000 migrants from Yemen with Puntland and breakaway Somaliland region. “UNHCR is extremely concerned about the dangers for anyone trying to flee across the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, where there are no search and rescue operations,” unveiled Adrian Edward, a spokesman for UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). With Bossaso and Berbera port cities being an entry point, local officials braced up for hundreds of Somalis previously displaced by chronic insecurity, and lately caught in Yemeni crossfire. Despite pledges of evacuation by Somalia Federal Government, many are believed to have been stranded in Yemen.  –