Italian physicians who, from Oct. 1979 to April 1981 directed an emergency medical team in the Ogaden refugee camps of the Qorioley district of Somalia, report on location, general set-up, vital statistics, health aspects, water and food supply, sanitation, disposal of waste matter, health hazards, spread and control of diseases, health education, and planning of health services and health teams.

Invited by the Caritas of Somalia and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Mogadishu, Somalia, from October 15, 1979 to December 31, 1980, two Italian medical teams of the Associazione Universitaria per la Cooperazione Internazionale (AUCI) worked among the Ogaden Refugees in 3 camps of the Qorioley District, lower Shabelli Region of Somalia. Each team consisted of one physician and 2 registered nurses. The Qorioley district, about 140 km SW of Mogadishu, has high day-time temperatures and high humidity throughout the year. The day to night temperature gradients are high. Strong winds are blowing to and from the Indian Ocean.

The 3 camps had been set up in the bush, on the right bank of the Shabelli river, about 8 km NW of Qorioley Town. The refugees in these camps were of Somali extraction and of Muslin culture and religion. They were housed in large military tents, aqal (round roofed skin covered hut of nomads), “mundul” (circular grass-thatched hut built around a central pole) and “arysh” (rectangular hut, corrugated iron tile roofs), aggregated at a very high density. More than 5000 people lived on one hectar. It was so crowded lhat there was no more space than 1.5 m2 of shelter per person. They lacked all hygienic services.

Each camp had a food storage hut (mud walled with corrugated iron roof) and 2-3 water collection ponds, fed from the river. At the time of our arrival, two “arysh” with a total of 20 beds were in use for non-ambulatory patients. Scattered in the camps there were 6 “medical posts.”