UNCHR concerned over plight of refugees in Mandera

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed grave concern about the worsening security and health conditions of between 3,500 and 5,000 Somali refugees who fled to the northeastern Kenyan town of Mandera over the past month.

A UNHCR statement on Wednesday said that all the refugees camping near the border were manifesting visible signs of starvation and malnutrition. "In the past two days alone, 70 children have been admitted in Mandera hospital suffering from severe malnutrition," the statement said.

An outbreak of diarrhoea in the second week of May led to three deaths. Although UNHCR has provided medicines to supplement Mandera hospital's stocks, there have been many deaths since, the statement added.

The refugees, who fled inter-clan fighting in Bulo Hawa just across the border in Somalia, are currently in a temporary location called Border Point 1, which is some 500 metres from Somalia. "The location is within firing range if fighting erupts in Bulo Hawa again," the statement warned. At least four refugees were killed when renewed fighting broke out there on 15 May.

The statement said that the proximity of Border Point 1 to the border exposed it to danger, making it impossible to mount an effective programme of assistance and interventions, such as supplementary or therapeutic feeding. For the same reason, the refugees have not received food since the influx.

"UNHCR has been negotiating with the government in Nairobi and Mandera on the imperative to relocate the refugees either further inland within Mandera or to the other established refugee camps in Dadaab and Kakuma," the statement said. The refugee agency said it had made the necessary preparations for the relocation, but was still awaiting a government decision.

The statement said about 5,000 of the 10,000 or so refugees who had been camping in and around Mandera town had crossed the border back into Somalia and were now at a location called Belet Amin, not far from the Kenyan border.

UNHCR is concerned about the fluid security situation inside Somalia and has appealed to all those concerned not to pressure the remaining refugees to return.