Somalis in Yemen make up the historical Somali population in

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

. Around 200,000 Somalis live in Yemen, of which 46,750 are refugees.

History

Many Somalis and

Yemenis Yemenis or Yemenites () are the Citizenship, citizen population of Yemen. Genetic studies Yemen, located in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, serves as a crossroads between Africa and Eurasia. The genomes of present-day Yem ...

can trace back their ancestry to a unspecified homeland somewhere in modern day Iraq. Many Somalis fled to Yemen during the

Somali Civil War The Somali Civil War (; ) is an List of ongoing armed conflicts, ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta which was led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, the Somali Armed ...

Demographics

There are around 710,000 Somalis in Yemen, mostly concentrated around

Aden Aden () is a port city located in Yemen in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, on the north coast of the Gulf of Aden, positioned near the eastern approach to the Red Sea. It is situated approximately 170 km (110 mi) east of ...

. There are also some on Lahij Gvernorate. Many Somalis in Yemen now speak

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

instead of their native

Somali language Somali is an Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic languages, Cushitic branch, primarily spoken by the Somalis, Somali people, native to Greater Somalia. It is an official language in Somalia, Somaliland, and Ethio ...

due to

language shift Language shift, also known as language transfer, language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceived ...

. But also due to the fact that there are no Somali teachers in the refugee camps or enough budget to allocate funds to teach the Somali language. Many Somalis have returned back to their homeland deeming its safe enough to return. "The voluntary returns are part of UNHCR’s Assisted Spontaneous Return (ASR) programme". Since 2017 over 6,200 somali refugees have returned home

Conditions

In 2010, ''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

'' reported that poverty among Somali refugees in Yemen remains common. Following the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

reported that migrant groups faced

stigmatization Stigma, originally referring to the visible marking of people considered inferior, has evolved to mean a negative perception or sense of disapproval that a society places on a group or individual based on certain characteristics such as their ...

as "transmitters of disease" after a Somali refugee was identified as the first case in the country.

Yemeni refugees in Somalia

Following the outbreak of the Yemeni civil war, some

refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

from Yemen have moved to Somalia. In 2022, ''

Anadolu Agency Anadolu Agency (, ; abbreviated AA) is a state-run news agency headquartered in Ankara, Turkey. History The Anadolu Agency was founded in 1920 during the Turkish War of Independence by the order of Mustafa Kemal Pasha. As the Empire's capital � ...

'' reported that many Yemeni refugees have felt welcomed by Somali society. As of late December 2021 there are 8,341 registered Yemeni refugees and asylum seekers in Somalia

References

{{Demographics of Yemen Somalia–Yemen relations * Ethnic groups in Yemen

History

Demographics

Conditions

Yemeni refugees in Somalia

See also

References