Hart Sheik

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Coordinates: 9°9′N 43°21′E / 9.15, 43.35
Hart Sheik
Hart Sheik Location within Ethiopia
Country	Ethiopia
Region	Somali
Zone	Jijiga
Elevation	1,590 m (5,217 ft)
Population (2005)
- Total	22,186
Time zone	EAT (UTC+3)

Hart Sheik (also transliterated Hartishek) is a town in eastern Ethiopia, and best known as the location of a refugee camp operated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2000. According to materials at the Nordic Africa Institute website, the town may be named after a Somali sub-clan, the Harti.^[1] Both are located in semi-arid desert region, known as the Ogaden, near the Somali-Ethiopian border.

1 Town
2 Refugee camp
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Town

Located in the Jijiga Zone of the Somali Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of 9°9′N 43°21′ECoordinates: 9°9′N 43°21′E and an elevation of 1590 meters above sea level.

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, Hart Sheik has an estimated total population of 22,186, of whom 11,306 were males and 10,880 were females.^[2] It is the larger of two towns in Kebri Beyah woreda.

[edit] Refugee camp

The camp was opened near the town during the Somali Civil War in 1988, to host Somalians fleeing the war. It was at one time the world’s largest refugee camp. Mortality and malnutrition rates among children at the camp prompted many calls for humanitarian aid.^[3]

Later, Hart Sheik 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 from within Ethiopia. Those who left it went to Somaliland after the end of the civil war.