The author of this report was engaged by the Bureau for Refugee Programs of the US Department of State to examine such issues as the root causes of refugee flows, internal displacement, and disruption of the UN refugee camps in northern Somalia; refugee protection issues; and prospects for repatriation and return strategies which could offer durable solutions for the affected populations. After introducing his assessment procedures, the author presents the results of his interviews concerning Somali refugees in Ethiopia and Kenya. Mr Gersony focuses on incidents of violence against unarmed, civilian non-combatants as the root cause of flight. He divides this section into seven nominal categories of conflict experience. The second section of the report deals with Somalis in northern Somalia and their reports of witnessing killings of unarmed civilian Somali non-combatants by the Somali National Movement (SNM). The third section examines reports from Ethiopian refugees in northern Somalian refugee camps. The attacks against these UNHCR camps appeared to be systematic and coordinated. Each of the interviewees from the camps provided eyewitness accounts of such attacks, all of which were attributed to the SNM. The author ends the report with conclusions about the conduct of the Somali army and the SNM in the conflict.