CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA \Y do not hold or cannot establish nationality. For example, Djibouti expelled an estimated 80,000 people from its territory in 2003,7%’ as part of “an attempt to weed out potential terrorists”.29° Presented as recent illegal migrants, the expellees were mostly Djiboutian nationals without papers from families who had been in the country since independence.*°9 Similarly, since the 1990s, the Somaliland government has periodically rounded up non-Somali Ethiopians and deported them back across the border, although some of them have been resident in the territory of Somaliland for many decades.?*° A 2015 report by the International Refugee Rights Initiative highlighted the situation of Africans expelled by Israel. More than 1,500 failed asylum seekers believed to be from Eritrea and Sudan were sent to officially unidentified “third countries” since they were not willing to return to their country of origin — including especially deportees were Eritreans.2*7 mainly sent to The Rwandan Rwanda.?** government Without legal denied status the and report’s recognised claim that these nationality, these deportees — and especially their children born in different countries — are at high risk of statelessness. Minorities in Somalia Somalia is one of the small language, number of countries host to minority communities. groups — the Issa-Somali and the Afar. in Africa to have Neighbouring a dominant majority culture and Djibouti, though far smaller, has two dominant Ethiopia and Eritrea, like most states in Africa, are made up of numerous different ethnic groups. While there are some ethnicities that are more dominant than others, there is no clear majority. In Somalia, the majority of the population belongs to traditional Somali clan structures, divided among several different branches of a related family tree. Isaag, and Dir. Minority communities who do The four main clan branches are the Hawiye, Darod, not belong to one of these clans face significant disadvantage in society, including in access to political and economic participation, access to justice, and harassment. physical The Somali citizenship that is based on membership citizenship law of 1962 confirms of one of the main clan branches, a conception of Somali defining “Somali” as “any person who by origin, language or tradition belongs to the Somali Nation” (see above, Nationality based on descent). The Provisional Constitution of 2012 and many of the constitutions of the federal member states prohibit discrimination and provide for minority rights.2*° 237 Simon Imbert-Vier, Tracer des frontiéres @ Djibouti: des territoires et des hommes aux XiXe et XXe siécles (Paris: Editions Karthala, 2011), 344; imbert-Vier, ‘identifier les nationaux a@ Djibouti’, 144. 238 Africa Overview in “Patterns of Global Terrorism — 2003”, Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, US State Department, 29 April 2004 available at https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2003/index.htm. 239 Samson A. Bezabeh, ‘Citizenship and the Logic of Sovereignty in Djibouti’, African Affairs 110, no. 441 (2011): 587-606; Imbert-Vier, ‘identifier les nationaux a Djibouti’. 24 Rader, Verification and Legibility in Somaliland’s Identity Architecture’, 110. 741 “4 was left with nothing’: “Voluntary” departures of asylum seekers from Israel to Rwanda and Uganda, International Refugee Rights Initiative, September 2015. 242 Rwanda government focal point on statelessness, “Comments on the Draft Study on Citizenship and Statelessness in EAC”, April 2018. 243 See discussion in Minority Rights Group, Minority inclusion learning review of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland — Programmes in the Horn of Africa, 13 July 2021, pp.23 — 24 https://minorityrights.org/publications/swiss-mfa-review/. 56 UNHCR — December 2021