•MSF data from Dagahaley camp where MSF provides medical services shows some 400 arrivals in August, while in September the figure climbed to 800.
•Somalia, like much of the Horn of Africa, is facing its worst drought in 40 years. Following the failure of four successive rainy seasons more than 7 million of the country’s 15 million people are experiencing severe hunger.
Doctors without Borders have said the new influx of refugees into Dadaab camps is giving them fresh headaches.
Doctors Without Borders told the Star the influx of hundreds of new arrivals every week is worsening matters as living conditions have deteriorated rapidly, and the risk of disease outbreaks is high.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) translates to Doctors without Borders.
Doctors Without Borders said the humanitarian situation is not yet at breaking point.
“In the last few weeks, the pace of new arrivals has shot up. MSF data from Dagahaley camp where MSF provides medical services shows some 400 arrivals in August, while in September the figure climbed to 800. Now we see hundreds of people arriving every week, however, it is challenging for our outreach teams to track all new arrivals, as many reside with relatives inside the camps,” Doctors Without Borders said.
Doctors Without Borders raised the red flag days before a planned visit by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, to Kenya and the Dadaab camps.
The UN High Commissioner will be calling upon all stakeholders for an immediate response, as many more people have been arriving in the camps and living conditions have worsened.
Doctors Without Borders said almost all refugees who arrived in Dagahaley in 2022 fled from southern parts of Somalia because of the drought resulting in loss of livelihoods; and intensified conflict in Somalia.
The ongoing drought in Somalia has made matters worse.
Somalia, like much of the Horn of Africa, is facing its worst drought in 40 years.
Following the failure of four successive rainy seasons more than 7 million of the country’s 15 million people are experiencing severe hunger.
Experts warn that the next rainy season between October and December will also likely fail, pushing several parts of the country into famine before the end of the year, unless aid efforts are urgently ramped up.
Hundreds of thousands of Somalis have abandoned their homes and embarked on perilous journeys in search of food, water and humanitarian assistance.
Since the drought started in January last year, over 1 million people have been forced from their homes, including 857,000 so far this year.
A further 366,000 have fled due to conflict and insecurity.
Doctors Without Borders said the continuous drought and failed rains have devastating impacts on the ecosystem, pastoralist host communities and refugees in the camps.
“Since not all people arriving in the camps are profiled, they do not get food assistance and are dependent on the hospitality of refugee and host communities, so food ratios are overstretched to accommodate new unprofiled arrivals,” Doctors Without Borders said.
Doctors Without Borders said livestock wasting and death means market decline and lack of labour for many people living in the camps. There used to be milk coming to the camps from host communities and this is no longer the case.
Doctors Without Borders said there has been a gradual monthly increase, (with the exception of May) of people coming to Dagahaley since the beginning of 2022.
Out of the new arrivals into Dagahaley in 2022, over 20 per cent are children under five years, and MSF teams screen for malnutrition.
This indicates that many families with small children seek refuge in the camps.
Doctors Without Borders said children who are suffering from malnutrition can access the MSF nutrition programme or, in complicated cases are enrolled on MSF Inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Center (ITFC) in Dagahaley hospital.
Doctors Without Borders said the malnutrition levels are high urging the UNHCR and Kenyan authorities to ramp up humanitarian support and urgently launch vaccination campaigns.
Doctors Without Borders said the MSF team has recorded three measles cases and two suspected cases of cholera in Dagahaley.
“In over cramped living conditions of camps where hygiene and sanitation are poor, isolated cases can quickly spread unchecked, especially if people continue arriving with no possibility to undergo health screening.”
Doctors Without Borders said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees should urgently scale up coordinated and collective efforts across all sectors including water, sanitation, shelter and food and nutrition in order to respond to emergency needs, which could escalate quickly in the days and weeks to come.
“UNCHR should work with the Government of Kenya to rapidly ensure systematic reception and registration of new arrivals to enable them access humanitarian assistance as other registered refugees do. This is key in the planning and response to emerging needs in the camp and host communities as actors/agencies depend on donors' funding that is mainly influenced by estimates of the target population.”
Doctors Without Borders said Measles and Oral Cholera Vaccine vaccination campaigns in the camps and surrounding host communities must be an urgent priority to prevent disease outbreaks and save lives.
Doctors Without Borders said there is a need for urgent focus on addressing the emergency needs of new arrivals and should not come at the expense of working towards durable solutions for refugees who have been living in Dadaab for years, as these should be parallel efforts.
On insecurity that was witnessed at the camp in the recent past, Gelle said they have witnessed hospitality among the diverse communities in the camps.
However, despite high levels of solidarity in camps (sharing of food, water distribution, donation of clothes and utilities) among the new arrivals and refugee community.
However, tensions may likely rise in the near future if the numbers of people coming to the camp continue to rise and resources are not ramped up.
“We have a window of opportunity to ramp up humanitarian support urgently before the situation reaches breaking point.”
According to UNHCR, Dadaab currently hosts over 233,000 registered refugees, many of whom have been living in the camps for over three decades.
Since Kenya stopped registering new arrivals in 2015, UNHCR has been carrying out periodic verification exercises to ascertain the number of unregistered refugees, so they can still 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 are reported to have arrived this year only.
MSF has been delivering healthcare in and around Dadaab for most of the camp’s 30-year existence.