The overall operational context in Somalia remained volatile and tense throughout 2018. Political tensions continued between some Federal Member States and the Federal Government; notably on the tensions was the South West, South Central and Puntland states during the election processes in these states, a situation that led to slowing down the progress in the commitments and political agreement of the National Security Council. However, towards the end of 2018, the Federal Government and the Federal Member States managed to secure a political compromise and among other political achievements, finally conducting the National Security Council meeting concluding on an electoral model based on a proportional representation, administration ownership and sharing of revenues. This achievement enabled a successful establishment of South-West state presidential election that was earlier surrounded by intense political rivalry. A successful participation of the Government in Somalia Partnership Forum in Brussel on July 2018 that endorsed joint commitment by the central government with neighbouring countries to strengthen cooperation, including through joint investments, establishing diplomatic ties and promoting bilateral relations, was yet another milestone in the political progress in Somalia in 2018. The South-Central, is the region mainly affected by continued insecurity situation perpetrated by Al-Shabaab, making the operational environment in this region more volatile and unpredictable. At the same time, Al-Shabaab and the alleged pro-Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) associated attacks continued across Somalia in increasing scale during 2018 as compared to the previous year. This situation posed threat to humanitarian operation and resulted into slowing down service delivery and interventions; particularly in Mogadishu, Bay and Bakool, Gedo and Kismayo. This context has accounted to the continued internal displacements. According to the 2019 Humanitarian Response Plan, Somalia has one of the largest internally displaced population in the world with an estimate of 2.6 million IDPs, majority of whom are in South-Central Somalia. During the reporting period, Somalia has continued to experience floods and droughts as it has been in the past years and this has instigated more displacements especially in Kismayo, Baidoa and Mogadishu. Lack of livelihood and land evictions are other drivers of displacement in South-Central Somalia. The participatory assessments conducted in 2018 across South-Central Somalia revealed that lack of proper land title deeds, in the absence of strong government policies on Housing, Land and Properties (HLP), leads to continuous evictions in the IDP settlements. UNHCR Operations in South-Central regional states continued throughout the period albeit the political and security challenges. Notably in Puntland, was the political tension between the State and the neighbouring Somaliland that led to outbreaks of violence near Tukaraq, in the disputed Sool region. The military confrontations between the two sides resulted in several casualties and the displacement of about 15,000 civilians. With large-scale deployments of security forces or militias, as well as provocative statements by both Somaliland and Puntland, the situation continued to be extremely volatile. In Somaliland, in areas with majority refugee population, the security situation has been assessed as medium. However, eastern regions of Somaliland, which house most of the IDPs, tensions remain high with threats of inter-clan clashes, potential infiltration by Al-Shabaab and other groups. Therefore in these areas remote implementation is necessitated.
