Sudanese refugees in Kenya fear returning home

Nairobi (dpa) - Sudanese refugees living in Kenya have expressed little desire to return to their homes despite January's peace agreement between the Sudanese government and rebels, said World Food Programme (WFP) Kenya Country Director Tesema Negash on Tuesday in Nairobi.

"The lack of schools, health facilities, food and basic infrastructure plus uncertainty over the peace deal has stopped people from returning to their homeland in significant numbers,'' Negash said.

Since the beginning of the year the number of refugees in the Kenya camp of Kakuma has risen by 5,000 to 91,000.

"The expectation was these numbers would begin dropping off once the peace agreement was signed,'' he said.

According to Kenyan law, refugees must remain in the camp located in the country's inhospitable north, leaving them with no way of finding work or providing for themselves.

The WFP warned that food for the refugees would become dangerously low in October, and asked donor countries to provide 6.7 million dollars.

Near Kakuma is another large refugee camp containing around 14,000 Somalis. Despite a new interim Somali government, the majority of these too have refused to return to home for fear of the continual clashes between rival militias. dpa uk mga