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Is Kenya Finally Telling Its 200,000 Somali Refugees to Go? Published May 10th, 2021 - 08:03 GMT
Tents fill the outskirts of Dagahaley refugee camp in Kenya s Dadaab refugee complex on July 24, 2011. [Photo: Phil Moore | AFP]
Highlights
Kenya announced a plan to close the Dadaab refugee complex and forcefully evict over 200,000 Somali refugees
The reason cited for the closing of the Dadaab refugee complex is security, but it could also be a bargaining chip in an international maritime dispute.
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Just as Somalia’s political crises worsened at the end of April, leading to a gun battle near the presidential palace in the capital Mogadishu, neighbouring Kenya announced a plan to close the Dadaab refugee complex and forcefully evict over 200,000 Somali refugees who still call it home – within 14 days. But why?
Integrate, don’t close
April 17, 2021
On March 24, Kenya’s government demanded that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announce a clear timetable for closing the country’s, and Africa’s, two largest refugee camps – the Dadaab refugee camp near the Somali border and the Kakuma refugee camp near the borders of South Sudan and Uganda – within 14 days. The government also informed the UNCHR that it would shift more than half a million refugees currently living in Dadaab and Kakuma to the border with Somalia if the commissioner fails to announce a plan for the camps’ closure in the required timeframe.
Children seen leaving school in Kakuma refugee camp, northwest Kenya, October 19, 2018 [File: Sally Hayden/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images]
On March 24, Kenya’s government demanded that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announce a clear timetable for closing the country’s, and Africa’s, two largest refugee camps – the Dadaab refugee camp near the Somali border and the Kakuma refugee camp near the borders of South Sudan and Uganda – within 14 days. The government also informed the UNCHR that it would shift more than half a million refugees currently living in Dadaab and Kakuma to the border with Somalia if the commissioner fails to announce a plan for the camps’ closure in the required timeframe.