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Loyo-Ado, Somaliland (SL Times) – As the Djiboutian government’s deadline for deporting its illegal residents approached, at least 4000 people converged since Wednesday on Loyo-Ado, a small Somaliland town at the border with Djibouti.
Most of those who arrived are women and children, and almost all of them need urgent relief assistance such as water, food, temporary shelter and transportation to their various destinations.
About 1500 Ethiopian Somalis who were initially returned to the Djiboutian side of the border had reportedly re-entered Somaliland territory from unguarded points along the porous border. Several pregnant women gave birth at Loyo-Ado. Moreover, an unidentified number of pregnant women were reportedly stranded along the border with some feared dead.
A spokesman for Djibouti had attributed his government’s decision to round up aliens in the country to security concerns. The deadline given to illegal immigrants in Djibouti to leave the country expires tomorrow. Any illegal resident caught by the police, will face automatic deportation across the borders with Ethiopia and Somaliland, and will not be allowed to take anything with him.
The wide-scale operation is being supported and paid for by the US military who had expressed, in the past, security concerns over the presence of large numbers of Ethiopian, Somali and Yemeni immigrants in the city-state.
The influx into Loyo-Ado is expected to swell in the next few days.
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