Red Crescent helps Somali families get back home

Abu Dhabi: More than 400 Somali families displaced due to violence and drought and living at a UAE camp in Mogadishu have returned home in a repatriation programme organised by the Red Crescent Authority (RCA), a senior official said.

Chairman Ahmad Humaid Al Mazroui said about 3,000 displaced people have returned to their towns and villages in the second phase of the programme.

The repatriation programme was launched in November last year and provides the families with enough rations for three months in addition to Dh1,400 to help with the purchase of basic needs for resettlement, Al Mazroui said. The aim is to help displaced people go back to their homes and be ready for plantation during the rainy season.

The UAE initiative, he added, had been well received and appreciated by Somali President Shaikh Sharif Shaikh Ahmad, who lauded it as a humanitarian gesture that would help restore security and stability in the drought-hit country.

Encouraging factor

Dr Saleh Al Tai, RCA Deputy Secretary-General for Relief and Projects, said $1.6 million (Dh5.88 million) had been earmarked for the repatriation programme. “The rainfall in the drought-stricken region was an encouraging factor for displaced people to go back home,” he said.

Dr Al Tai said a international relief organisations, including United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the Qatari Red Crescent and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) had approached the RCA office in Mogadishu to get first-hand information on the successful humanitarian initiative.

Gulfnews.com