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Kenya: Malnutrition levels in refugee camps cause alarm

Briefing Notes, 3 July 2007

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 3 July 2007, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

UNHCR, the World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF are warning that the levels of malnutrition in refugee camps in Kenya have reached alarming levels and are jointly appealing to donors for US$ 32 million to try and reverse this situation. At the back of the room is a joint press release issued in Nairobi today with further details.

A survey mid-2006 showed that despite WFP providing 95 percent of general food distribution ration for the last two years, the acute malnutrition rate was 22.2 percent in the Dadaab camps and 15.9 percent in Kakuma camp, well above the World Health Organisation's emergency threshold of 15 percent.

Recurrent reduced donor funding to UNHCR has had a negative impact on the provision of essential nutrition services, complementary foods and non-food supplies to refugees. A complete package of assistance is needed to overcome chronic shortages in essential commodities such as firewood, energy saving stoves and soap to ensure refugees are not compelled to sell their food to meet the need for these items. UNHCR is asking for US$7.17 million to meet these needs.

The Dadaab complex of three refugee camps host some 175,000 refugees, mainly from Somalia, with around 35,000 children under five years old. Kakuma camp houses 62,000 persons with about 10.5 percent of the population under five. The camps are in harsh, semi-arid environments.

The Kenyan government does not allow refugees to find employment outside the camps, to cultivate land or graze livestock leaving the refugee population almost entirely dependent on aid from the UN and NGOs.

In 2006, the already limited assistance for the refugees was stretched even further with an influx of some 34,000 refugees fleeing conflict in neighbouring Somalia and extensive floods which destroyed portions of the camps and cut off Dadaab from supply routes for nearly two months. The floods resulted in displacement of hundreds of families within the camps and massive destruction of physical infrastructure including latrines, residential buildings and hospitals.

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Flood waters in north-eastern Kenya in mid-November, caused havoc in the Dadaab refugee complex of three camps. Over 100,000 of the 160,000 refugees have been badly affected by the flooding, particularly in Ifo camp. Refugees' homes were swept away and latrines have overflowed and collapsed. The main supply route linking Dadaab to the rest of Kenya has been cut by the rains, blocking all aid deliveries by road.

To get refugees to safety on higher ground, UNHCR started transferring people to Hagadera camp, 20kms away – often using donkey carts. A series of airlifts has brought in fuel for generators, emergency health kits, tarpaulins, and shovels to fill sandbags to keep the flood waters at bay. Essentials items such as plastic tarpaulins, sleeping mats, and food have been distributed to refugees who lost everything.

These floods have been compared to the massive flooding which followed the record 1997 El Nino rains that swamped much of low-lying eastern Kenya.

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Kenya Floods Threaten Refugees

Post-Tsunami Recovery in Puntland

Away from the glare of the international spotlight, Somalia in the Horn of Africa was also hit by last December's Asian tsunami which rolled across the Indian Ocean. UNHCR, as part of an integrated UN emergency response, distributed life-saving supplies, including plastic sheets, blankets, and kitchen sets, to some 45,000 Somalis living along a severely damaged 650km strip of coast in the northeast.

A year on, the area is getting back to its pre-tsunami state with UNHCR and its partners now making the leap from providing emergency aid to investing in development projects. In an effort to improve the lives of the inhabitants of one of the poorest places on Earth, UNHCR has begun rehabilitating schools, building markets and women's centres, as well as constructing roads to help economic development.

The UN's relief efforts are concentrated in a 650km stretch of coastline between Hafun and Garaad in northeast Somalia, an area also known as Puntland. In war-ravaged Somalia, Puntland is a relatively peaceful self-declared autonomous enclave.

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Flood Airdrop in Kenya

Over the weekend, UNHCR with the help of the US military began an emergency airdrop of some 200 tonnes of relief supplies for thousands of refugees badly hit by massive flooding in the Dadaab refugee camps in northern Kenya.

In a spectacular sight, 16 tonnes of plastic sheeting, mosquito nets, tents and blankets, were dropped on each run from the C-130 transport plane onto a site cleared of animals and people. Refugees loaded the supplies on trucks to take to the camps.

Dadaab, a three-camp complex hosting some 160,000 refugees, mainly from Somalia, has been cut off from the world for a month by heavy rains that washed away the road connecting the remote camps to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Air transport is the only way to get supplies into the camps.

UNHCR has moved 7,000 refugees from Ifo camp, worst affected by the flooding, to Hagadera camp, some 20 km away. A further 7,000 refugees have been moved to higher ground at a new site, called Ifo 2.

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Flood Airdrop in Kenya

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