Along with hundreds of other recent arrivals from neighbouring Somalia, five-day-old Isha, her five siblings and their parents wait in a queue at the sprawling Dadaab refugee settlement here in north-eastern Kenya. Report by Kun Li, DADAAB, Kenya,
VIDEO: UNICEF's Kun Li reports on a sharp increase in the number of severely malanourished Somali refugee children struggling to survive in camps in Dadaab, north-eastern Kenya. “My wife was nine months pregnant when we started the journey,” says Isha’s father, Noor Miyo. “On the way, we suffered. We had to pass through Al Shabab checkpoints, and they took whatever we had.”Adds the baby’s mother, Nurto Manoor: “I went into labour on the first night after we arrived here. They rushed me to the hospital. Thanks to that, my baby is alright now, but I am worried about her future. Maybe I won’t have anything to give her.” Overcrowded conditions Ms. Manoor’s concern is shared by many inside and outside the three camps in Dadaab. In recent months, due to severe drought, high food prices and on-going conflict, a huge number of Somali children and their families have fled across the border and sought refuge in the camps.The Dadaab camps were built for 90,000 people some 20 years ago, but now they house about 380,000 residents. At least another 20,000 are still waiting to be registered.“These women and children have gone through many hardships,” says UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa Elhadj As Sy, who visited Dadaab this week. The refugees have clearly expressed what they need, including food, water and other basics to help them survive, notes Mr. As Sy.“At the same time,” he says, “we also realize that there are hundreds more coming in every day, and that’s not sustainable, even if all the necessary things were done.”Across the camps, feeding programmes have been overwhelmed by a sharp increase in the number of malnourished children. Among the admissions, nearly half are newly arrived. One recent screening at Ifo, one of the camps in Dadaab, showed a 24 per cent malnutrition rate for children under the age of five among the new arrivals. According to the screening results, 9.4 per cent of the children were severely malnourished. Read the full blog post from Kun Li in Dadaab here
Ms. Manoor’s concern is shared by many inside and outside the three camps in Dadaab. In recent months, due to severe drought, high food prices and on-going conflict, a huge number of Somali children and their families have fled across the border and sought refuge in the camps.The Dadaab camps were built for 90,000 people some 20 years ago, but now they house about 380,000 residents. At least another 20,000 are still waiting to be registered.“These women and children have gone through many hardships,” says UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa Elhadj As Sy, who visited Dadaab this week. The refugees have clearly expressed what they need, including food, water and other basics to help them survive, notes Mr. As Sy.“At the same time,” he says, “we also realize that there are hundreds more coming in every day, and that’s not sustainable, even if all the necessary things were done.”Across the camps, feeding programmes have been overwhelmed by a sharp increase in the number of malnourished children. Among the admissions, nearly half are newly arrived. One recent screening at Ifo, one of the camps in Dadaab, showed a 24 per cent malnutrition rate for children under the age of five among the new arrivals. According to the screening results, 9.4 per cent of the children were severely malnourished.
Read the full blog post from Kun Li in Dadaab here