A/HRC/21/61 8. The present report is based on the information obtained by the Independent Expert during his talks with the many interlocutors mentioned above. He also consulted recent publications and media reports on developments in Somalia, and received written communications from individuals drawing his attention to important human rights issues. II. Background 9. According to recent UNHCR information,1 Somalia generated the third-highest number of refugees in the world, after Afghanistan and Iraq. The number of Somali refugees in the region had exceeded 1 million. They were mainly hosted in Kenya, Yemen, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda and Egypt. Almost 1.36 million internally displaced Somalis within the country were settled mainly in the South-central region. A total of 44,734 Somalis sought refuge in neighbouring countries in the first five months of 2012, while another 39,000 were internally displaced, mainly in South-central Somalia. 10. Somalia was the country in the Horn of Africa most affected by the ongoing drought, widely regarded as the worst in 60 years. In a country devastated by two decades of civil war, consecutive seasonal rain failures have led to scarcity and extremely high food prices. Some 3.7 million Somalis were estimated by UNHCR to be in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Increasingly, Somalis are leaving their homes, walking thousands of kilometres in search of food, most of them ending up in settlements for the internally displace inside Somalia and in refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, in conditions of extreme malnourishment. 11. According to the Emergency Relief Coordinator, the humanitarian situation in Somalia is critical and needs to remain high on the agenda of the international community. Although famine conditions are no longer present, large numbers of people are still in crisis and the situation could worsen quickly. The April-June rains began late and were distributed unevenly. As a result, the harvest was likely to be smaller and later than usual. People in southern Somalia were likely to experience emergency levels of food insecurity later in 2012.2 III. Key developments 12. Two important developments took place in the country during the reporting period: one, relating to the security situation, was the withdrawal of Al-Shabaab from Mogadishu in early August 2011; the other was the adoption of a road map for Somalia to end the transition period on 20 August 2012. A. Security situation 13. The withdrawal of Al-Shabaab from Mogadishu represented a significant political and security development that had a direct bearing on the human rights situation in Somalia. The cessation of traditional warfare was almost immediately reflected in a change in the type of injuries treated at the main medical facilities in Mogadishu. It also allowed 1 2 4 See the UNHCR Population Movement Tracking Mogadishu Monthly Dashboard, May 2012. Available from www.unhcr.org/4fec227b9.html. See http://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/emergency-relief-coordinator%E2%80%99s-key-messagessomalia-5-july-2012-issue-number-9.