The International Rescue Committee has been conducting an assessment in Somalia with an eye toward re-starting programs to assist both families displaced by the current violence and the communities that are hosting them. Since January 2007, fighting between the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), backed by the Ethiopian military, and remnants of the Islamic Courts and militias aligned against the TFG has displaced at least 400,000 people from Mogadishu.

Based in Nairobi, Kenya, at the IRC’s Horn and East Africa Regional Office, the assessment team has focused on coordination with the Somalia NGO Consortium and the Somali Support Secretariat as well as UN OCHA and other implementing agencies. Assessments were conducted in Galkayo and Garowe in the Puntland State of Somalia and in Marere in the Middle Juba region of Central/South Somalia.

The IRC expects to open its first field office in the town of Galkayo. Initial efforts will focus on providing clean water, safe sanitation and hygiene promotion to families displaced from Mogadishu and the communities that are hosting them. The IRC previously ran programs in Somalia until 1995, and in Somaliland until 2003.