Further rains hinder repair efforts in Kakuma

Humanitarian workers fighting to repair flood-damaged shelters in Kakuma refugee camps, in northwestern Kenya, have been hindered by additional rainfall, the UN refugee agency reported on Friday.

Heavy rainfall, particularly on Wednesday 14 November, had temporarily halted the construction of mud bricks used to build the walls of new shelters in the camps, said Ron Redmond, Geneva spokesman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

A shortage of plastic sheeting had also slowed repair work in Kakuma, in Kenya's northwestern Turkana District, he added.

Two young Somali boys drowned and over 23,000 people were left homeless two weeks ago after heavy rains destroyed more than 7,000 refugee huts in Kakuma.

Aid workers had so far managed to rebuild new structures and roofs for more than 3,500 families, and had re-established a 24-hour supply of clean water, according to Redmond.

The scale of the emergency had wiped out the camp's stocks of the plastic sheeting used to provide temporary shelter for many of the camp's 81,000 residents. The agency had sent 2,500 sheets from Nairobi and was moving a further 14,500 from its regional stockpile in western Tanzania, he added.

Severe floods over the last two weeks have also hampered relief efforts in Daadab refugee camp, North Eastern Province, which is home to some 130,000 refugees, mostly Somali.

Camp inhabitants were reported to be running short of food after some 20 trucks carrying food relief were stranded by waterlogged roads and bridges having been washed away, the BBC reported on Friday, 16 November.

It quoted camp officials as saying that the lack of food was particularly severe at this time as the month-long Islamic religious period of Ramadan had just begun, and the Somali refugees required special food in the evenings to break their daily fast.

Supplies of medicines were also running short, they added.