Kenya to close world’s biggest refugee camp?

Dadaab was home for almost half a million people. 

280,000 refugees are provided today with food and shelter, healthcare and education there. However, Kenyan government says that 25 years of the camp’s functioning is enough  and the camp must be closed by the end of the month.

 Some of them were flown back by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR),while others have come to Somalia countryside by buses still controlled by the Islamist militant group al-Shabab.

Tens of thousands of people displaced by drought and decades of civil war live in 86 camps around Kismayo alone.

However, Interior Minister for the southern state of Jubaland Mohamed Warsmae Darwish says that “the problem is how they can stay here, get a livelihood and how we can support them”. “People have no toilets, no shelter, no water, no education, no medicine - how can they cope” he adds.

Some refugees say they would rather stay in Dadaab, than return to Somalia.  

"The closure of Dadaab is the decision that the refugees themselves will reach if and when they want to return," said Mohamad Abdi Affey, the new United Nations special envoy for Somali refugees. "If people want to come back to their country and need help, it is our mandate to help them, but we are not an advocate of return by any means,” he noted. 

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