Two dead in riot at Kenya's packed refugee camp

Two dead in riot at Kenya's packed refugee camp

2011-07-02 04:13:12 GMT+7 (ICT)

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- The United Nations on Friday reported that two individuals were killed during a riot at the world's biggest refugee camp in Kenya which holds over 370,000 people most of them Somali nationals.

The unrest broke out on Thursday at the Dagahaley refugee camp, one of the three that comprise the Dadaab complex of camps in Kenya's North-eastern province," said Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Residents gathered to protest an attempt to demolish illegal structures around a food distribution point when Kenyan police intervened in order to quell the riot but violence erupted instead.

Kenyan police officers initially used tear gas to disperse the rioters. However, they claimed it was necessary to resort to live ammunition and thus, two refugees were killed and a dozen more were injured.

"Sadly, this incident is symptomatic of the pressures at the camp amid overcrowding compounded by the very high number of arrivals we have been seeing recently from Somalia," added Edwards.

According to the UN, more than 61,000 Somalis have arrived to Kenya this year alone; 27,000 of them in June. The asylum seekers fled from the violence and severe drought that has struck Somalia.

Somali refugees have also been fleeing to Ethiopia, as 55,000 have arrived since the beginning of the year. In addition, 26 percent of them arrived malnourished with the malnutrition rate among children estimated at three in five.

Bokolmanyo and Malkadida, the two established refugee camps in southeastern Ethiopia, have reached their full capacity. The complexes were opened in April 2009 and February 2010 respectively and each can accommodate up to 70,000 people.

Last Friday, a new camp was opened in Kobe and 7,500 Somalis were transported there on Thursday. Ethiopia hosts a total of 130,000 Somali refugees, as informed by Edwards.

In total, there are more than 750,000 Somali refugees in countries in the region, mostly in neighboring Kenya (which hosts 405,000), Yemen (187,000) and Ethiopia (130,000). There also are about 1.46 million internally displaced people within Somalia.

Kenya itself is suffering a humanitarian crisis caused by a severe drought that is affecting the Horn of Africa. The government declared the drought situation a national disaster, with malnutrition mortality rates in northern Kenya exceeding emergency thresholds.

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