Hart Sheik is a town in eastern Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

, and best known as the location of a refugee camp

Refugee camp

A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people may live in any one single camp. Usually they are built and run by a government, the United Nations, or international organizations, or NGOs.Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu...

 operated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , also known as The UN Refugee Agency is a United Nations agency mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to...

 in 2000. According to materials at the Nordic Africa Institute website, the town may be named after a Somali

Somali people

Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...

 sub-clan, the Harti

Harti

Harti , meaning "strong man", is a name used to denote a confederation of various Darod sub-clans of the Somali people.-Clan tree:There is no clear agreement on the clan and sub-clan structures and many lineages are omitted...

. Both are located in semi-arid desert region, known as the Ogaden

Ogaden

Ogaden is the name of a territory comprising the southeastern portion of the Somali Regional State in Ethiopia. The inhabitants are predominantly ethnic Somali and Muslim. The title "Somali Galbeed", which means "Western Somalia," is often preferred by Somali irredentists.The region, which is...

, near the Somali

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

-Ethiopian border.

Located in the Jijiga Zone

Jijiga Zone

Jijiga is one of nine zones of the Ethiopian Somali Region. This zone is named after its largest city, Jijiga. Other towns and cities in this zone include Qarbibayax, Dhurwaale Awbere, Derwonaji, tuli gulled and Hart Sheik...

 of the Somali Region

Somali Region

Somali Region ; is the eastern-most of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia. It is often called Somalia, though it is not to be confused with the independent country of the same name. The capital of Somali State is Jijiga...

, this town has a latitude and longitude of 9°9′N 43°21′E and an elevation of 1590 meters above sea level.

Refugee camp

The camp was opened near the town during the Somali Civil War

Somali Civil War

The Somali Civil War is an ongoing civil war taking place in Somalia. The conflict, which began in 1991, has caused destabilisation throughout the country, with the current phase of the conflict seeing the Somali government losing substantial control of the state to rebel forces...

 in 1988, to host Somalians fleeing the war. It was at one time the world’s largest refugee camp. Mortality

Death

Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....

 and malnutrition

Malnutrition

Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....

 rates among children at the camp prompted many calls for humanitarian aid.

Later, Hart Sheik became home to more than 250,000 people, mostly Somalians from the Gabiley

Gabiley

Gabiley is a city in the northwestern Woqooyi Galbeed province of Somaliland, a self-declared republic that is internationally recognized as an autonomous region of Somalia.Gabiley is located 54 km west of Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland...

 and Hargeysa areas in north-western Somalia. The camp was closed in July 2004, but thousands of people remained there, mostly internally displaced person

Internally displaced person

An internally displaced person is someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the current legal definition of a refugee. At the end of 2006 it was estimated there were...

s from within the Somali Region. Those who left it went to Somaliland

Somaliland

Somaliland is an unrecognised self-declared sovereign state that is internationally recognised as an autonomous region of Somalia. The government of Somaliland regards itself as the successor state to the British Somaliland protectorate, which was independent for a few days in 1960 as the State of...

 after the end of the civil war.

Demographics

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency

Central Statistical Agency (Ethiopia)

The Central Statistical Agency is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth, as well as to act as an official training center in that field. It is part of the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and...

 in 2005, Hart Sheik has an estimated total population of 22,186, of whom 11,306 are men and 10,880 are women. It is the larger of two towns in Kebri Beyah

Kebri Beyah (woreda)

Kebri Beyah is one of the 52 woredas in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Jijiga Zone, Kebri Beyah is bordered on the south by the Degehabur Zone, on the west by the Oromia Region, on the northwest by Jijiga, on the north by Awbere, on the northeast by Somalia, and on the southeast by...

 woreda

Woreda

Woreda is an administrative division of Ethiopia , equivalent to a district . Woredas are composed of a number of Kebele, or neighborhood associations, which are the smallest unit of local government in Ethiopia...

.

The 1997 census reported this town had a total population of 14,885 of whom 7,469 were men and 7,416 women. The three largest ethnic groups reported in this town were the Somali

Somali people

Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...

 (93.36%), the Amhara

Amhara people

Amhara are a highland people inhabiting the Northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Numbering about 19.8 million people, they comprise 26% of the country's population, according to the 2007 national census...

 (2.57%), and the Oromo

Oromo people

The Oromo are an ethnic group found in Ethiopia, northern Kenya, .and parts of Somalia. With 30 million members, they constitute the single largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and approximately 34.49% of the population according to the 2007 census...

(2.49%); all other ethnic groups made up the remaining 1.58% of the residents.

External links

• Ethiopia's children dying from malnutrition - UNICEF.org
• A satellite map of Hartishek - Indexmundi.com