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Water supplies were saline and although fish was available, Somalis disliked eating it.
5.
I asked whether there would not be ethnic problems from dumping a large number of Somali refugees in an Afar area. Edongo said that this was not for UNHCR to say. If the Government believed they could cope with these problems the UNHCR was in no position to intervene.
6.
Edongo said that most of the refugees had come over as a result of the Ogaden War. The first repatriation operation had been stopped late in 1984 by drought. The drought was now over and if refugees were in any case nipping across the border, this suggested that they were no longer in political danger. He therefore believed it would be appropriate to resume the repatriation operation in the near future.
CC: EWAD, ODA
Chanceries:
Did
DE Tatham
Mogadishu Addis Ababa
CONFIDENTIAL
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