Hartishek

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Hartishek was a former refugee camp in southeastern Ethiopia. The camp was located in a semi-arid desert region bordering Somalia. It was opened during the Somali Civil War in 1988 to host Somalians fleeing the war.

It was once the world’s largest refugee camp.^[1] It later became home to more than 250,000 people mostly Somalians from the Gabiley and Hargeysa areas in north-western Somalia.

The camp was closed in July 2004 but thousands of people remained there mostly internally displaced persons (IDPs) from within Ethiopia. Others have left it to Somaliland after the end of the civil war.

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