UN says 50,000 Somalis have crossed to Ethiopia

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 7 (Reuters) Around 50,000 Somalis have crossed into neighbouring Ethiopia in the past six months of instability in their homeland, and most are living without humanitarian aid, the United Nations said today.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said a majority of the would-be refugees were women and children fleeing fighting in Somalia where an Islamist movement took control of most of the south in June but fell over the New Year.

''Most of these people are being taken care of by family and clan members in Ethiopia, with no assistance from humanitarian agencies thus far,'' the UNHCR statement said.

''UNHCR will need to conduct a screening and registration to be able to extend the necessary protection to identified refugees,'' it added, without saying when that could take place.

UNHCR said the 50,000 new arrivals were on top of 17,000 Somali refugees already at the Kebribeyah camp near Jijiga in the northeathe peak of Somali influx into Ethiopia in 1997, there were 628,000 Somali refugees in the country, but most were repatriated back to Somalia, according to UNHCR.

Somalia has been in chaos and without central rule since the 1991 ouster of a dictator.

Somalis and Ethiopians have close ties, with the eastern Ogaden region of Ethiopia mainly populated by ethnic Somalis.

But the two Horn of Africa nations also have a history of conflict. Most recently, Ethiopian troops entered Somalia to help the government oust the militant Islamist movement.

REUTERS BDP RAI2118