CERF allocates over $4 million for humanitarian assistance to refugees in Kenya
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An IDP camp in Kenya [Photo: IRIN]
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22 June 2009: Eighty-five percent of all of Kenya’s 320,000 refugees are now sheltered in three congested camps at Dadaab in Kenya’s Northeastern Province. However, conditions have only deteriorated as Somali refugees continue to arrive at a rate of 8,000 per month. Current estimates suggest that 60,000 more refugees may arrive in the second half of the year.
Responding to this situation, CERF has allocated some $4.2 million to assist Somali refugees in Kenya. The funds will help to kick-start a programme for alleviating severe overcrowding in the three Dadaab camps, which now host some 279,000 refugees, three times the number the camps were intended to host. The largest portion, some $2.6 million, will go to an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) programme to relocate approximately 12,700 people from Dadaab to the Kakuma camp, benefiting not only those who are relocated but also the people who remain in Dadaab by easing the strain on scarce resources. Another $1.6 million will go to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and partners to help provide support services such as the provision of food and health services in the Kakuma camp.
[Last update: 24 June 2009]
CERF allocates some $8.6 million for humanitarian assistance in Kenya
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A child receiving vaccination in Kenya [Photo: IRIN]
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12 May 2009: A combination of drought, high food prices, the lingering effects of post-election violence, a cholera outbreak, and a continued influx of refugees from Somalia have left hundreds of thousands of people in Kenya in need of urgent assistance.
More than 460,000 people will receive enough food for one month through an allocation of $5 million to the World Food Programme (WFP), which was experiencing an acute shortfall in the cereal stocks it uses for emergency aid. This funding will also enable WFP to continue providing micronutrient rich food to health centres in arid districts where malnutrition rates are traditionally high. Another $1.2 million will go to scale up nutrition interventions for diagnosing and managing acute malnutrition. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will work together in areas such as Kenya’s Eastern and Northeastern provinces, which are experiencing an acute deterioration of the food and nutrition situation.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and WHO are also working to contain the spread of a cholera outbreak, which has expanded to areas of Kenya where the disease is not endemic. As of last month, nearly 2,150 cases and 52 deaths had been reported in thirteen districts. A separate $1.2 million allocation will help WHO and UNICEF to undertake health, water and sanitation programmes, as well as information campaigns in a total of 25 districts, including those adjacent to areas where cases of cholera have already been reported.
Finally, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will receive some $1.2 million to build shelters in a camp in northwestern Kenya, to which refugees are moving because conditions in the severely overcrowded Dabaab camps have fallen below acceptable standards. An estimated 266,000 Somalis, are now sheltered in the three congested camps at Dabaab in Kenya’s Northeastern Province, three times the number of people they were designed for. In January, CERF had allocated some five million dollars to three UN agencies to enable them to help people in Dabaab, but conditions have only gotten worse as Somali refugees continue to arrive at a rate of 6,000 per month.
[Last update: 15 May 2009]
CERF allocates additional $470,800 for nutrition support to Somali refugees in Kenya
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Somali refugees in Kenya [Photo: IRIN]
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7 January 2009: Since 2007, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP) and partners have worked to decrease the levels of acute malnutrition and associated mortality in the Dadaab refugee camps. Surveys conducted in 2008 showed that global acute malnutrition rates dropped from 22.2 percent in 2006 to 12 percent in 2008. However, in recent months, the increasing numbers of asylum seekers, in the absence of additional resources, are reversing this positive trend.
In order to address acute malnutrition and prevent associated mortality and morbidity in Somali refugee populations in Dadaab camps, CERF is providing $470,800 to UNICEF. Through its implementing partners, GTZ and CARE, UNICEF will support therapeutic and supplementary feeding for 35,000 malnourished young children and 12,400 pregnant and lactating women.
[Last update: 2 January 2009]