Governor Jama wants Ifo 2 refugee camp re-opened

Garissa Governor Nathif Jama has said the current drought has forced previously settled refugees to return to Dadaab in search of food and water.

He said the county would communicate its decision to the national government refugee security committees to ensure the new refugees are well accommodated. 

Jama has also called for the reopening of the Ifo 2 refugee camp.

“UNHCR, donors and the government must show a sense of urgency now, set up a dignified reception and screening system for people crossing over to Kenya. Without screening new arrivals, doing vaccinations only will have little impact,”  he said.

The governor spoke on Monday while in the company of UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi who was on a fact-finding mission.

Data collected by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) outreach teams shows that the number of arrivals from Somalia to Dagahaley has doubled between August to September, reaching over 800 people.

This number is estimated to keep increasing in the coming weeks and months.

Many of the new arrivals need shelter, food, safe drinking water and latrines, as open defecation is now common.

Jama called on the UNHCR to help the new arrivals since they were in dire condition and could not wait until after they were profiled.

Grandi said UNHCR continues to handle various drought interventions inside Somalia and in the refugee camps in Kenya.

“We all know the situation in Somalia where the refugees are escaping a crippling drought, violence and continuing conflict in the country. They need to feel safe before humanitarian assistance can follow,” he said.

“I want to thank the Kenyan government and the people of Garissa for accommodating their brothers and sisters.” 

Grandi who was accompanied by Ambassador Mohamed Affey the UNHCR Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa said, there is a need to look at the psychological trauma many have experienced.

With the increase in arrivals at Dadaab, MSF has called for the scaling up of humanitarian response including cholera and measles vaccinations

Living conditions in camps hosting over 233,000 refugees and thousands of new arrivals since January are worsening.

MSF said with low vaccination coverage in Somalia, and no system in place to receive and screen the newly arrived people in Kenya, infectious diseases can spread rapidly.

Many of those arriving are coming from Southern Somalia, where measles and cholera outbreaks have occurred recently.

Adrian Guadarrama, MSF’s deputy programme manager for Kenya said even a few isolated cases of measles and cholera can cause a full-blown outbreak in overcrowded camp settings, where clean drinking water is scarce and sanitation and hygiene are poor. 

Dadaab currently hosts over 233,000 registered refugees, many of whom have been living in the camps for over three decades (UNHCR, July 2022).

Since Kenya stopped registering new arrivals in 2015, UNHCR has been carrying out periodic verification exercises to ascertain the number of unregistered refugees, to receive some basic assistance.

In the last such exercise earlier this year, UNHCR recorded over 45,000 unregistered refugees in Dadaab.

Among them, some 11,000 arrived this year only. 

Edited by Kiilu Damaris