Hiiraan Online

Welcome to Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp and home to half a million asylum seekers who have fled various conflicts in the Eastern Africa region.

Most came in as a consequence of the civil war in southern Somalia. They comprise both Somalis and members of Somalia’s various minority ethnic groups such as the Bantu, who have mostly migrated from the southern Juba River valley and the Gedo region. Some are from Kismayu, Mogadishu and Bardera.

An agreement is in place, signed by UN, Somalia and Kenya to close the camp and repatriate refugees to Somalia over the next three years over security concerns.

Human rights activists criticised the plan as not well thought out as Somalia was not yet stable.

“It seems that the government of President Hassan Sheikh Mahamud is already showing signs of internal rivalries and corruption allegations, which are threatening to pull the country apart just one year after it was established,” wrote Rasna Warah, a photojournalist and author.  

Located about 100 km from the Somalia-Kenya border, Dadaab is a semi-arid town in North Eastern Kenya. It hosts Ifo, Hagadera and Dagahley camps, constructed in the early 1990s. The camps cover 50 square km and are within an 18 km radius of Dadaab town. 

The refugees first settled in Ifo but when the population rapidly expanded, German architect Werner Shellenberg was hired to design Dagahley and Per Iwanson initiated creation of the camp. 

International humanitarian organisation CARE managed the camps for many years, while environmental and waste management were overseen by GTZ.

Deforestation has affected the lives of Dadaab inhabitants. Although they are required to stay in the camps, the refugees often venture out into nearby forests in search of firewood and water. The journeys put the women and girls at risk of rape.  

Severe floods affected the region in 2006. More than 2,000 homes in Ifo were destroyed, forcing relocation of more than 10,000 refugees. The sole access road to the camp and town was also cut off.

Aid agencies took vital goods to the area. Their efforts resulted in the creation of the Ifo 2 camp in 2007, by the Norwegian Refugee Council. The new camp only fully opened for resettlement in 2011.

With camps filled to capacity, NGOs have worked to improve camp conditions.

According to the Lutheran World Foundation, military interventions in southern Somalia and scaling up of relief operations had by December 2011 greatly reduced the movement of migrants into Dadaab.

But in 2011 a severe drought caused a dramatic surge in the camps’ population, which was then estimated to be 439,000 against a capacity of 90,000. 

The number would increase to 500,000 by the end of 2011, according to Médecins Sans Frontières.

The UN is to carry out a survey in Dadaab to find out how many Somali refugees would be ready to go home. Kenya wants the camps closed due to increasing terrorism threats linked to Somalia’s Al Shabaab militants.