Friday, September 09, 2011
Somalia is at the epicentre of a hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa region which is affecting over 13 million people. Kenya and Somalia both have four million hungry citizens.
Despite Kenya officially closing its border with Somalia, some 1,200 Somali refugees arrive at Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya each day. Hosting some 427,000 refugees, it is the largest camp in the world and already far over its capacity.
“In view of the largely economic nature of the causes of the current exodus of Somali refugees into Kenya, we urge the international community to enhance its stabilisation and humanitarian support to the Somali government and people by opening operating, feeding [and] medical centres within the liberated or stable areas in Somalia,” Kenya’s foreign minister, Moses Wetangula, said at the opening of a summit in Nairobi, Kenya, aimed at ending drought emergencies.
“This will help control the influx of more people and, more importantly, will save the lives of the emaciated women and children refugees who die daily in increasing numbers while attempting to make their way to the distant overcrowded camps in Kenya.”
The Kenyan government opened Dadaab camp, designed for 90,000 refugees, in 1991 as a temporary solution to the civil war across the border. But 20 years on, there is still no end in sight to the conflict.
“The impact of this influx has been an overcrowded refugee environment which the available resources cannot accommodate,” said Wetangula.
Kenya is struggling to secure its lengthy, porous border by creating an 80-km buffer zone in southern Somalia, known as Jubaland, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported last month.
And Kenya has trained thousands of Somali soldiers to man the frontier.
HRW said that Somalis’ right to seek asylum under international humanitarian law should be protected.
“Creating an area free of al Shabaab controlled by friendly militias on the Somali side of the border allows Kenyan officials to make the argument that Somali refugees could stay there instead of coming into Kenya,” HRW said.
Al Shabaab Islamic militants, allied to al Qaeda, control much of the famine zone in southern Somalia. They have refused to allow the United Nations to deliver food aid to people in this region.
Kenya’s Wetangula appealed for more aid for the 150,000 Kenyans living in the area who are also going hungry.
“I call upon humanitarian relief agencies to extend similar support to the host community as that provided to the refugees in order to prevent resource conflicts,” he said.