They rather understimate than report the actual numbers let alone inflating somali numbers, I went there sometime back and its more densely populated than we think especially the western corner, there are farms and multiple mid sized settlement all along the way and not an empty lands like in waqooyi and bariYup the whole system in Ethiopia is corrupted but your right what would they gain by inflating Somali numbers
If its not the habeshi's constant aggression and displacement they would've been 20 millions by now, qoloji alone is hosting hundreds of thousands of displaced somalis