Looking beyond the towns: facts & conjectures about rural returnees in the Ogaden & ‘Somaliland’

Clan relations constitute an essential, shorthand explanation of conflict among Somali people. But they are neither a sufficient nor often even a particularly interesting element in the consideration of returnees. The apparent obsession with categorization by clan and subclan alone has led to a remarkable paucity of any other recorded information about the identity of refugees and returnees, such as: Which area did they flee from, or return to? How many are of town origin? How many were purely livestock herders, how many also farmers? Have returnees resumed their original occupations? Such matters should be at the heart of the debate about induced repatriation or assistance to voluntary returnees. This paper is based on two rapid rural surveys designed to provide broad statements about human nutrition and economic conditions, and the position of returnees in this context: a needs-assessment study carried out in the Ogaden (Ethiopia) in August/September 1991 and a similarly designed survey of rural Somalia, carried out in November/December 1991. Bibliogr., notes.