Eight boats carrying people fleeing the violence in Yemen have reached the port town of Bosasso in Bari region over the past five days.
Puntland’s interior minister Ahmed Elmi Osman told Radio Ergo that the arrivals they registered were mainly women and children.
“Most of the people who arrived on the eight boats were Somalis. The number of people who arrived in Bosasso is 253 in total including 93 children, 75 women and 85 men. Most of the arrivals hail from the Puntland regions but they also include people who previously fled from the southern parts of the country. We transferred some of them to the southern regions, and we have no problem in welcoming the fleeing people,” the minister said.
The Puntland administration has tasked a commission to assist the people fleeing from Yemen and to facilitate the transfer of those who are willing to travel onwards to their original home regions.
Naima Mohamed Adan, a mother of three, was among this week’s arrivals in Bosasso. She migrated to Yemen as a girl 13 years ago from Mogadishu, and married in Yemen.
“I lived in Aden town. My neighbourhood was affected by intense airstrikes. A Yemeni man assisted me to board the boat that brought me to Bosasso…I paid 50 dollars to the boat crew. I also paid some money to be helped in getting on the boat and fleeing with my children,” she said.
Puntland administration called on aid agencies to closely monitor the situation in order to jointly prepare for more arrivals from Yemen.
