• Text size Normal size text | Increase text size by 10% | Increase text size by 20% | Increase text size by 30%
  • Also available in French

Kenya: Airdrop starts for flooded refugee camp

Briefing Notes, 8 December 2006

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 8 December 2006, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

Today, Friday, with the help of the US military, we are scheduled to start an emergency airdrop of more than 240 tonnes of urgently needed relief supplies to thousands of refugees affected by the massive flooding in the Dadaab refugee camps in northern Kenya. We have been facing serious difficulties in transporting the emergency supplies from Nairobi to Dadaab due to poor road conditions. We requested the US military, based in Djibouti, to help us deliver more than 240 tonnes of relief supplies including plastic sheets, blankets and mosquito nets and they kindly agreed. The US military will use a C-130 cargo plane to airdrop the supplies, with fifteen rotations planned between today and Wednesday, 13 December.

Dadaab, a three-camp complex hosting some 160,000 refugees, mainly from Somalia, has been cut off for several weeks by heavy rains that washed away parts of the Garissa-Dadaab road, the only road connecting the remote camps from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Air transport has been the only way of getting supplies to the camp. We have been using smaller cargo planes to reach Dadaab. The airdrop is necessary as the Dadaab airstrip cannot take the weight of a C-130 cargo plane.

After a break of some five days, heavy showers have started falling again in Dadaab causing new flooding. Some parts of the camps are inaccessible and the fresh rains have led to the further deterioration of roads within the camps. We have however, been able to airlift fuel supplies to the camp. This week, together with WFP we have managed to airlift 18,400 litres of fuel necessary to run vehicles and generators used in the hospital, camp water pumps, and offices including those of the refugee agency and implementing partners.

We have moved 7,000 of the most affected refugees from Ifo to Hagadera camp, some 20 km away and moved a further 7,000 people to higher ground. A new site, called Ifo II is being developed on higher ground. A mass information campaign was launched in Ifo camp to inform refugees of the plans agreed with refugee leaders to relocate some shelters and services to Ifo II and to explain how, when and why this will happen.

• DONATE NOW • • GET INVOLVED • • STAY INFORMED •

 

Related Stories

more documents

UNHCR country pages

Crisis in Horn of Africa

Tens of thousands of Somalis are fleeing conflict and drought into Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya.

The Nubians in Kenya

In the late 1880s, Nubians from Sudan were conscripted into the British army. The authorities induced them to stay in Kenya by granting them homesteads and issuing them British colonial passports. The Nubians named their settlement near Nairobi, Kibra, or "land of forest." In 1917, the British government formally declared the land a permanent settlement of the Nubians. Since independence, Kenyan Nubians have had difficulty getting access to ID cards, employment and higher education and have been limited in their travel. In recent years, a more flexible approach by the authorities has helped ease some of these restric¬tions and most adult Nubians have been confirmed as Kenyan citizens, but children still face problems in acquiring Kenyan citizenship.

The Nubians in Kenya

Somalia Emergency: Refugees move into Ifo Extension

The UN refugee agency has moved 4,700 Somali refugees from the outskirts of Kenya's Dadaab refugee complex into the Ifo Extension site since 25 July 2011. The ongoing relocation movement is transferring 1,500 people a day and the pace will soon increase to 2,500 to 3,000 people per day.

The refugees had arrived in recent weeks and months after fleeing drought and conflict in Somalia. They settled spontaneously on the edge of Ifo camp, one of three existing camps in the Dadaab complex, that has been overwhelmed by the steadily growing influx of refugees.

The new Ifo Extension site will provide tented accommodation to 90,000 refugees in the coming months. Latrines and water reservoirs have been constructed and are already in use by the families that have moved to this site.

Somalia Emergency: Refugees move into Ifo Extension

Running out of space: Somali refugees in Kenya

The three camps at Dadaab, which were designed for 90,000 people, now have a population of about 250,000 Somali civilians, making it one of the world's largest and most congested refugee sites. UNHCR fears tens of thousands more will arrive throughout 2009 in this remote corner of north-east Kenya as the situation in their troubled country deteriorates further.

Resources, such as food and water, have been stretched dangerously thin in the overcrowded camps, with sometimes 400 families sharing one tap. There is no room to erect additional tents and the new arrivals are forced to share already crowded shelters with other refugees.

In early 2009, the Kenyan government agreed to allocate more land at Dadaab to accommodate some 50,000 refugees. View photos showing conditions in Dadaab in December 2008.

Running out of space: Somali refugees in Kenya

Kenya: In Need of ProtectionPlay video

Kenya: In Need of Protection

The legacy of Sudan's civil war haunts many refugees. In Kakuma camp some need special protection to ensure their safety.
Suad's StoryPlay video

Suad's Story

Suad, a student and teacher in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, tells how she's using technology to become self-sufficient and what this means for her family and community.
Kenya: Nubians in KiberaPlay video

Kenya: Nubians in Kibera

The Nubians came to Kenya from Sudan more than a century ago to fight for the British. After independence, many became stateless.