Sun Jun 12, 2011 12:24AM
Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya (file photo)
An international medical organization has declared that the world's largest refugee camp of Dadaab in Kenya has reached its capacity, with no room for new arrivals.
Dadaab, an umbrella complex comprising of three separate camps of Dagahaley, Hagadera and Ifo in northeastern Kenya, has run out of space, causing a “humanitarian emergency,” Doctors without Borders warned in a report titled “No Way in: The biggest refugee camp in the world is full.”
The population of the Kenyan camp, which consists mostly of malnourished families fleeing violence in the neighboring war- and drought-stricken Somalia, has climbed to 350,000 and is estimated to swell to 450,000 over 2011.
Humanitarian organizations cannot afford to get relief into Somalia, because it has been involved in a civil war since 1991.
Dadaab is run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
"The families are headed for the refugee camps of Dadaab but the three camps in the Dadaab area are already full and there is nowhere for them to stay," the organization warned, adding that the arriving refugees have to wait for an average of 12 days to receive their first food ration, and 34 days to get cooking utensils and blankets from the UN refugee agency.
"It's very unsafe here - at night we're scared that wild animals will eat the children, and we've had threats of violence from local people who say the land is theirs,” Fatima, a 34-year-old refugee from Mogadishu, Somali capital, was quoted by the report as saying.
"Children are even being killed by hyenas because they have no protection,” she further explained.
Citing security concerns, the Kenyan government closed its border with Somalia to the influx of refugees in 2007, with the United Nations declaring in 2008 that the camp has no more space for new incomers.
MAB/MB
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