History
Fighting in Beledweyn across the border in Somalia in mid-July 1994 led to an influx of people arriving daily at Kalafo until 28 July. The majority of these people were Hawadle subclan members fleeing the Habar Gidir subclan, who at the time controlled the town. These refugees, on their way to Kalafo, had to avoid Mustahil which was also controlled by the Habar Gidir, and arrived by way of a small village called Shibo. The woreda government claimed that the camp holding these refugees, located outside of Kelafo, contained 15,000 people, although the Federal government estimated it held 5,000 refugees and the United Nations Development Programme estimated the camp had contained 4,050 people by 12 August of that year.
Kelafo was one of the woredas heavily affected by the flash floods in Ethiopia during September 2006. Losses reported for this woreda include the deaths of 28 people and 5,800 livestock. The Shebelle River burst its banks again in November 2008 and affected 14 kebeles and 85 villages in Kelafo, washing away crops on 164 hectares of farmland, displacing 36,888 people and killing three.
The ability to graze livestock in Kelafo is currently under threat by the arrival of the invasive Prosopis juliflora, which is known in Somali as birsoobis literally "when the stem is cut it sprouts with shoots".
Read more about this topic: Kelafo (woreda)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A country grows in history not only because of the heroism of its troops on the field of battle, it grows also when it turns to justice and to right for the conservation of its interests.”
—Aristide Briand (1862–1932)
“Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)