Storms leave thousands of refugees without shelter

Four days of heavy rain and wind have destroyed more than 7,000 refugee huts in the northwestern Kenyan refugee camp of Kakuma, leaving 23,500 refugees without shelter, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told IRIN on Monday. Confirming the crisis in a press release issued on Tuesday, UNHCR said that as well as destroying thousands of homes, the rain had flooded latrines and disrupted the camp's water systems, raising serious health concerns for Kakuma's 81,852 residents. UNHCR said the adverse weather had also forced staff to abandon a two-week ration distribution which should have started last week. The statement said UNHCR had begun distributing plastic sheets to affected refugees and, as an emergency measure, moving refugees into schools and other permanent structures within the camp. UNHCR said they were also dispatching more plastic sheets, blankets and other emergency supplies from Nairobi. A coalition of UN agencies and NGOs has been formed to supervise the digging of new latrines and the installation of clean water distribution points on higher ground around the camp.