World’s largest refugee camp expands

19 August 2011

• World Vision providing tents, emergency relief supplies to 5,000 families
• Aid agency says shelter needed as region faces possible heavy rains, flash floods in coming months

The first of 30,000 Somali refugees are expected to move into a new area of the world’s largest refugee camp on Thursday thanks in part to a donation of 5,000 tents by international aid agency World Vision.

The new tents are going up just as the region faces the possibility of heavy rains – and the risk of flash floods – despite months of dry weather.

Tents

The tents will also help protect the vulnerable from malaria, a potential killer, and especially of children and those weakened by malnourishment.

Baaf Guled, 50, his wife, Mimino, and their six children said they were grateful to be moving into a tent after an arduous journey out of Somalia. He arrived in the Dadaab area two days ago after a 12-day walk from Mogadishu.

"We had nowhere to sleep so we slept out at night under the stars," said Baaf Guled. "I was worried for my family because of the mosquitoes and malaria. We left Somalia because of the violence and hunger. "

Dadaab

The Dadaab complex sits on a windswept plateau close to the Somali border and houses 440,000 refugees.

Most have fled drought at the rate of 1,800 per day – either into Kenya or Ethiopia. World Vision has already dispatched more than 2,500 tents to Dadaab and erected hundreds, ready for the arrival of the refugees who are being moved in from transition areas around the vast complex.

The remaining 2,500 tents are enroute by airlift, due into Nairobi Friday and then expected to arrive in the camp shortly, following a 286 mile journey by road. The aid agency is working closely with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations' Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to establish this part of the camp.

World Humanitarian Day

World Vision’s shelter expert Mike Pattison said: “Refugees families will be much better off once they are housed in these tents. Thousands of women and children have faced the most daunting trek through dry land without food to escape famine in Somalia and get to the camp. As the world marks World Humanitarian Day on Friday, it’s a sad reminder that millions of men, women and children continue to be displaced by war, conflict, environmental problems and drought."

The Dadaab complex is made up of three separate camp areas and the tents are going up in IFO extension, a new area that is designed to accommodate the ever swelling numbers of arrivals. The tents have been provided thanks to a partnership between World Vision and ShelterBox, a UK charity.

Emergency supplies

Pattison said the tents are designed not only to protect refugees from the weather but also snakes and insects. However, he said the intervention would meet only 12 percent of the 40,000 tents required to meet demand. World Vision also handed out 5,000 emergency kits that include blankets, mosquito nets, buckets, cooking utensils, and personal hygiene items.

World Vision's emergency communications officer, Mindy Mizell, who is in Dadaab waiting to see the refugees housed said: "Dadaab is a dry, dusty desert camp but is overflowing with a sea of people. There aren't enough tents for everyone moving in so families are building their own makeshift homes out of sticks, blankets and clothes. Having a tent is going to bring a huge improvement to people who are already in desperate straits.”
 

 

« Previous post Next post »