State extends Dadaab refugee camp closure by six months

The government has extended the

closure of Dadaab refugee camp by six months to May 2017, following

a request last week by a special UNHCR envoy on the Somali situation.

Kenya had vowed to shut Dadaab camp this month, saying it was being used by al Shabaab militants who continue to sporadic attacks in several parts of the country.

But rights groups criticised the decision saying it would hurt Somalis fleeing violence and poverty, and further accused Kenya of forcibly sending them back to a war zone.

The government dismissed the allegation.

Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery said

the extension gives the international community time to ensure refugees return to a safe place.

"The elaborate repatriation programme will begin in December because of the

delicate security situation in Somalia," he told

journalists in Nairobi on Wednesday.

Nkaissery noted the closure of the camp, for security and economic reasons, does not mean Kenya will no longer receive refugees.

He said

all non-Somali refugees will be moved to other camps

in February 2017.

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The government had set November 30 as the deadline for closing the camp which at the time was home to more than 300,000 Somali refugees.

But Interior ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka said on Monday that Kenya will not meet the deadline because Somalia could not yet guarantee basic social services for returning refugees.

This was the country's first public acknowledgement that the deadline would be missed.

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Dadaab had 326,000 refugees at the end of May, already 100,000 fewer than five years earlier, many of whom were believed to have returned to Somalia.

According to UNHCR data, only 34,900 refugees had returned home by last week while 276,269 were still in the camp.

Since the start of the repatriation, 99 convoys and 160 flights have left for Somalia, 66,650 refugees have approached the return home help desks, while 66,252 have indicated their desire to go back, the UN agency said in an update.

In 2015, a total of 5,001 individuals were resettled from Kenya, with more than 3,500 of those going to the USA. Only 671 vulnerable refugees were resettled in EU countries.

The tripartite agreement signed in 2014 by Kenya, Somalia and the UN refugee agency already lapsed.

The agreement offered a legal framework for Somali refugees’ return under a UN-monitored programme.

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