According to P. S. Gilkes in The Price of Peace: Somalia and the United Nations 1991-1994, the Aurtable is a small Darod clan living mainly in Mudug, a region northeast of Mogadishu (Sept. 1994, 139). Gilkes states that the Somali National Democratic Union (SNDU) consisting of members of the Aurtable and the Lelkasse clans was set up under the leadership of Dr. Ali Ismail Abdi (Sept. 1994, 139). According to Gilkes the SNDU was created before the January 1993 Addis Ababa peace conference "to boost Ali Mahdi's support in terms of the number of organizations backing him" (ibid.). For additional information, please consult pages 139 and 140 of The Price of Peace: Somalia and the United Nations 1991-1994.

No other information on the Aurtable clan could be found among the sources consulted by the DIRB.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Gilkes, P.S. September 1994. The Price of Peace: Somalia and the United Nations 1991-1994. Bedfordshire: Save the Children Fund UK.

Africa Confidential [London].

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series [Oxford].

Africa Watch. April 1995. Somalia Faces the Future: Human Rights in a Fragmented Society.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Reports.

The Horn of Africa Bulletin [Uppsala].

The Indian Ocean Newsletter [Paris].

Indexed Media Review (IMR).

Jeune Afrique [Paris].

New African [London].

Victims and Vulnerable Groups in Southern Somalia. 1995.

HCRViews information database.

On-line searches of news articles.

Oral sources.