MaximsNewsNetwork: KENYA SOMALIS REFUGEE CAMP UNHCR

MaximsNewsNetwork: 25 September 2009 - UNHCR: The latest figures from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) shows that number of Somalis reaching Kenya's Dabaab Refugee camp this year has passed 50,000.

The latest figures from the UN refugee agency show that over 50,000 Somalis have fled to Kenya this year to escape the conflict and growing unrest in their country. The refugees are arriving at an overwhelming average rate of 6,400 a month, adding more pressure on the already overstretched facilities and resources in the Dadaab refugee settlement in northern Kenya.

Dadaab is the worlds largest camp, now hosting more than 280,000 refugees, mostly Somalis. The camp, opened in the early nineties was built to shelter no more than 70,000 people. UNHCR processes the new arrivals, but there is no more room to build new shelters in the camp. Refugees must find shelter with friends or family. This has created overcrowded conditions, increasing the risk of disease.

Whats worse, after a prolonged drought, several parts of Kenya are now experiencing torrential rains. Meteorologists have forecasted that Kenya will be hit by the El-Nino phenomenon and that Dadaab is likely to be heavily flooded in the coming weeks, posing considerable health risks to the refugees.

In mid-August, UNHCR embarked on a program aimed at decongesting Dadaab and started the relocation of some 12,900 refugees to Kakuma camp in north-west Kenya.

Despite the fact that the agency has already moved nine thousand five hundred and seventy thousand, the camp population in Dadaab remains virtually unchanged.

The deteriorating security situation and prolonged drought in Somalia are forcing more people to flee further a field, into the neighboring countries and beyond.

Using unscrupulous smugglers, thousands risk their lives and take the perilous journey across the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea to reach Yemen or the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe.

Somalia remains one of the largest producers of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world. UNHCR provides protection and assistance to more than 515,000 Somali refugees in the nearby countries of Kenya, Yemen, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Uganda.

The UN estimates that there are 3.8 million Somalis in urgent need of humanitarian assistance; this includes some 1.5 million people forced from their homes inside Somalia.

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• Dabaab camp
• crowded
• disease
• drought
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• Uganda