Kebri Beyah

9.1 43.166666666667Coordinates: 9 ° 6 ' N , 43 ° 10' E

Kebri Beyah

Kebri Beyah (also Kebribeyah , Qebri Beyah , Gabribagia , Gabribaja ; Amharic ቀብሪ በያህ) is a place in the Jijiga zone of the Somali region of Ethiopia . It is the capital of the woreda Kebri Beyah and the location of a refugee camp .

According to the Central Statistics Agency of Ethiopia for 2005, Kebri Beyah had 13,192 inhabitants. In 1997, 93.98% of the 8,840 inhabitants were Somali , 2.9% Amhars and 1.4% Oromo , and 1.72% belonged to other ethnic groups.

A camp for refugees from Somalia has existed at Kebri Beyah since 1989 . It initially housed members of various Darod subclans , both Somalis and Ethiopian Somali, who had lived as refugees in Somalia and are now returning. The population remained around 10,000 for a long time. Kebri Beyah was the only refugee camp in the Somali region to remain open, while the other camps (at Hartisheik , Aware , Derwonaji , Teferi Ber and Ayisha ) were closed between 1997 and 2005, as a large part of the refugees from northern Somalia ( Somaliland ) returned. In 2005, the UNHCR expected to close Kebri Beyah soon. However, the influx of new refugees from the embattled southern Somalia meant that the population of the camp rose to around 16,000 to 17,000. Around 4,000 were therefore relocated to Teferi Ber / Awbere in 2007 . New warehouses were also opened in the south of the Somali region.