UNHCR puts out fire at Kakuma camp

UNHCR staff have put out a “large fire” at the Kakuma refugee camp in northwest Kenya, the agency’s spokesman Kris Janowski told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday. Saturday’s blaze, the fourth suspected arson attack in the camp since January, caused no injuries but destroyed the whole block in the Somali portion of the camp “before volunteers were able to bring it under control”, he said. More than 700 family shelters have been destroyed and 4,000 people displaced by the fires. He noted that Kenyan police blamed residents of the camp, which houses some 84,000 refugees from Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia, for the fires which all occurred in the Somali section. UNHCR has put vehicles at the service of additional police units deployed to stop the arsonists, and more water equipment has been put in place for fire fighting. Police have so far made six arrests among the Somali refugee community.