Background
Over the past two decades, Kenya has hosted Somali refugees from Mogadishu and the Lower Juba regions of Kismayo, Jamame and Afmadow. Following the closure of the Mombasa camps in 1997, the Somali refugees who did not repatriate were mainly relocated to Dadaab and partly to Kakuma camps. Since then, new arrivals continue to add to the existing refugee population in Dadaab. Despite the official closure of the Kenyan border with Somalia in early 2007, more than 60,000 people crossed into Kenya throughout 2008. In early 2009, some 25,000 new Somali refugees have entered to Dadaab.
The Somali refugee influx is expected to continue in the coming months as a result of ongoing violence in Somalia, compounded by severe drought conditions and food insecurity. The Somali crisis and subsequent displacement to Kenya is straining the resources of the Kenyan Government and humanitarian agencies. New arrivals are accommodated in existing refugee camps in Dadaab (Dagahaley, Hagadera and Ifo) which host three times the number of people for which they were initially designed. Refugees in the area outnumber the local population by almost 3 to 1. Without a political resolution to the conflict in Somalia, the humanitarian situation will remain critical in neighbouring countries, especially in Kenya.
The Kenyan authorities, UN agencies, humanitarian NGOs and UNHCR have been working closely to improve the living conditions of over 267,000 Somali refugees, but the needs are enormous and the current level of funding is insufficient. Regionally, the political and economic situation of countries neighbouring Kenya, as well as of Kenya itself, are increasingly precarious. Food security and lack of livelihoods in the entire region are a matter of international concern.
It is against this backdrop that additional human and financial resources, beyond those originally foreseen in UNHCR's annual budget for 2009, are required to meet minimum standards and provide essential services for the existing caseload as well as for some 120,000 new arrivals expected in the course of 2009.
In December 2008, UNHCR launched an emergency assistance programme for Somali refugees in Dadaab with total requirements of USD 91.6 million. In April 2009, UNHCR reviewed the programme, adapting activities to current operational realities. The total requirements for UNHCR's humanitarian interventions in Dadaab still amount to USD 91.6 million, out of which USD 21.4 million has already been included in UNHCR's 2009 Global Appeal under the annual budget. However, due to changes in activities, the sectoral level budgets of the supplementary programme have been revised.
Under the supplementary programme, UNHCR will:
- cover critical gaps and improve the living conditions of the existing Somali refugees that have deteriorated over the years and have been aggravated by the arrival of new refugees;
- decongest the Dadaab camps through the relocation of 10,000 refugees from Dadaab to Kakuma;
- establish permanent and continuous registration in Dadaab;
- construct one new camp to host some 120,000 refugees in order to accommodate new arrivals as well as to decongest existing camps.
These elements are part of the integrated strategy that will enable UNHCR to prevent health, protection and other hazards in the three overcrowded camps in Dadaab and better provide protection and emergency assistance to new arrivals.