The report is to a large extent based on a joint fact-finding mission report by the Austrian Bundesamt für Fremdwesen und Asyl/ Staatendokumentation and the Swiss Staatssekretariat für Migration, as well as a joint fact-finding mission report by the Danish Immigration Service and the Danish Refugee Council. The report was reviewed by COI researchers from Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway.
The drafting of this report was finalised on 26 September 2017. Any event taking place after 31 August 2017 is not included in this report. The exceptions to this cut-off date were made during the peer-reviewing process completed on 20 December 2017.
This report was written according to the EASO COI Report Methodology and aims to provide information which is relevant for international protection status determination (refugee status and subsidiary protection).
The first chapter gives a general overview of the main political-economic developments in the reporting period (January 2016 - 31 August 2017).
In the second chapter a general description of the security situation in Somalia is given. This is then explained per regional state in more detail in the third chapter. A general description of the regional states (subdivided into regions) contains information on the geography and population, on the background of the conflict, including the actors active in the regions. This is followed by a description of recent trends in the security situation, with regard to the above-mentioned indicators: the nature of the violence, frequency, targets, locations and number of fatalities.
Policy
After the fall of president Siad Barre in 1991, Somalia sank into chaos. Various authorities have taken power since then. Somaliland and Puntland became de facto states independent of Somalia in the 1990's. The general security situation in Somalia is largely determined by a long-term, ongoing, internal armed conflict which has resulted in many Somalis being uprooted or seeking refuge in other countries. In order to assess the need for international protection, the Commissioner General takes into account the fact that there are fundamental differences between the situations in Mogadishu, Central and Southern Somalia on the one hand, and the situation in Somaliland and Puntland on the other.