UNHCR denies refugee riots in north

The UN refugee agency UNHCR has denied media reports claiming that hundreds of refugees stormed its offices in northwestern Kenya, demanding a solution to a dispute over firewood.

Press reports said police had broken up a demonstration at the Kakuma camp by refugees complaining over a shortage of firewood which had prevented them from cooking food.

UNHCR spokesman Emmanuel Nyabera told IRIN on Monday there had been skirmishes around the camp on Friday, but not among refugees. He said a group of people from the local community stopped a police-escorted convoy, which was ferrying firewood to the refugee camp, and began to forcibly download the firewood.

"The skirmishes were among people in the local community," he said. "Because of the attack on the convoy, the police intervened."

He attributed the problem to a conflict among locals arising from competing interests in UNHCR's Firewood Project tenders, in which members of the local community are contracted to supply firewood to the camps.

"We have an open and competitive bidding system," Nyabera said. "But there is a conflict between those who supply us with firewood for the camps and interested parties who have not had the opportunity to supply."

"Discussion is going on how we can fine tune ways of settling this issue so the local community and refugees can both be happy," he added.

Nyabera acknowledged however that the incident had caused a lot of anxiety among the refugees.

The UNHCR firewood project, also known as the Energy Management and Environmental Project, was initiated in 1998 to stop banditry attacks on refugees and the rape of refugee women and girls who were out collecting firewood. It was also aimed at containing environmental degradation.

As of December 2001, UNHCR had invested over US $4 million in the project to procure and distribute firewood to the refugees in an ecologically friendly manner, a UNHCR report said.