Twin blasts in Dadaab raise concerns of worsening security
Monday's explosion in Hagadera camp killed one police officer and wounded two others. Tuesday's blast in nearby Ifo camp suggested it was not an isolated incident.
GENEVA, December 21 (UNHCR) - An improvised explosive device went off on Tuesday near the market at the Ifo refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. There were no casualties but a police vehicle was damaged. The explosion came just a day after a blast in nearby Hagadera camp killed one police officer and seriously injured two others.
In a statement issued today, UNHCR expressed alarm at the string of recent security incidents targeting the Dadaab refugee complex in northern Kenya. Dadaab is the world's largest refugee settlement and shelters more than 460,000 people.
In total there have been four explosions at Dadaab since October, when three aid workers were kidnapped. The blasts have killed three Kenyan police officers and wounded four others. There have also been threats against humanitarian agencies working in Dadaab. UNHCR condemned these attacks and called for respect for peace and the civilian nature of the refugee camps.
"We are deeply concerned for the well-being and safety of Somali refugees in Dadaab, most of whom are women, children and elderly," said António Guterres, the UN's High Commissioner for refugees. "For the sake of refugees and those who are there to help them, it is of paramount importance to preserve the peaceful and civilian character of the camps."
A deadly mix of conflict, persecution, drought and famine has seen 295,000 people fleeing Somalia this year. More than half have found shelter at the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya. Others fled to Ethiopia, Yemen and Djibouti.
In Dadaab, development of new sites, registration, deliveries of emergency assistance and services continued uninterrupted throughout the year. However, since October, growing insecurity has crippled the ability of aid agencies to deliver the all but life-saving assistance - mainly food, water and health services. UNHCR and its partners are exploring options to allow full operations to resume.
The situation in Dadaab has been further complicated in recent months by an outbreak of cholera, believed to have started among new arrivals who acquired it in Somalia or en route to Dadaab. Although new cases are now on a downward trend, UNHCR has registered 897 cases, and three deaths, since August. Worsening security, rains and flooding have also made it harder to truck in water to parts of the camps.
Somalia remains one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. More than 950,000 Somalis live as refugees in neighbouring countries, while another 1.46 million are internally displaced.
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Thousands of refugees homeless after floods hit Kenyan camp
2 May 2003 ... DADAAB, Kenya, May 2 (UNHCR) - Thousands of Somali refugees in north-eastern Kenya have been rendered homeless after heavy rains destroyed hundreds of shelters in Dadaab refugee camp. A majority of ...... -
First Somali refugees fly home from Kenya after two-year break
17 Aug 2005 ... DADAAB, Kenya, August 17 (UNHCR) - The first airlifts from Kenya to Somalia in two years left Dadaab this week, bringing dozens of Somali refugees home to the north after more than a decade in exile. ...... -
UNHCR responds to public health threats in Dadaab refugee camps
28 Sep 2012 ... caused by hepatitis E virus) among refugees in Dadaab camp complex in northern Kenya, UNHCR is ... With more than 473,000 inhabitants, the overcrowded Dadaab refugee complex - now comprising five ...... -
Kenya floods: Refugees forced to relocate to higher ground
24 Nov 2006 ... More than 3,360 have now been transferred to Hagadera camp, one of the three camps in the Dadaab ... We are still very worried about the isolation of the Dadaab camps because of impassable roads. A ...... -
UNHCR welcomes camp extension at Dadaab, Kenya
15 Jul 2011 ... of the Ifo II extension at the Dadaab refugee complex in eastern Kenya near the Somalia border. ... areas, have driven nearly 60,000 people into neighbouring Kenya's Dadaab region so far this year. ...... -
Top Kenyan university opens campus next to world's largest refugee camp
10 Oct 2012 ... DADAAB, Kenya, October 10 (UNHCR) - Nairobi's Kenyatta University has opened a campus in the north-east town of Dadaab and courses will be open to Kenyan citizens and refugees living in the nearby ...... -
Feature: Engaging men to help fight violence against refugee women
27 Jan 2003 ... DADAAB, Kenya (UNHCR) - Since she fled her war-torn homeland more than 10 years ago, Somali refugee ... In Dadaab, a complex of three camps run by the UN refugee agency in north-eastern Kenya, refugee ...... -
Polio outbreak in Dadaab refugee camps being contained
31 May 2013 ... PRESS RELEASE Polio outbreak in Dadaab refugee camps being contained DADAAB 31 MAY 2013 - WHO, UNHCR, and partner agencies are engaged in an intensive vaccination campaign to contain an outbreak of ...... -
Kenya: Somali refugees continuing to arrive
22 Sep 2006 ... who had arrived at the border town of Liboi in the past two days to our camp in Dadaab. On Wednesday, our teams transferred about 35 people from Amuma, another border point 98 km east of Dadaab. ......