Cholera Outbreak in East Kenya Campp

15 November 2011 Last updated at 15:02
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East Africa drought: Cholera outbreak in Kenya camp

Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp, on
the border with Somalia, is home to more than 400,000 people
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East Africa hunger
crisis

• Refugee success stories
  
• In pictures
  
• Rains fail to ease crisis
  
• Tragedy
  revisited
  

There has been an outbreak of cholera
in the world's largest refugee camp in Kenya, home to Somalis fleeing famine and
conflict, the UN has said.

It may have started among new arrivals at the camp where one person has died
and there are now 60 cases, it says.

The aid operation at Dadaab camp was scaled back last month after the
abduction of two aid workers.

Kenya blames Somali Islamist militants for the kidnappings and has sent
troops into Somalia in pursuit of them.

But the al-Shabab group, which controls most of central and southern Somalia,
denies it is behind the abductions.

Nearly half a million people have fled Somalia to seek assistance in Dadaab
over the last two decades.
Rains and flooding
The UNHCR refugee agency says insecurity is still hampering aid efforts in
the area, despite the deployment of 100 Kenyan policemen in the last month.

It says the situation has been exacerbated by the outbreak of the waterborne
disease.
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• Are Kenyans seeking a buffer zone in
  Somalia?
  
• Rains ease Somali
  drought
  

The UNHCR and other aid agencies have set up cholera
treatment centres in the camp for severe cases.

"Rains and flooding had affected the trucking of water to parts of the camps,
and we fear some refugees resorted to using unsafe water from flooded areas,"
the UNHCR said in a statement.

The drought in East Africa is the worst in 60 years, with Somalia worst
affected.

Some areas have been declared famine zones, and many thousands have fleeing
their homes to seek assistance over the borders.

Kenya's incursion has contributed to a slowing in flow of Somalis to Dadaab,
but many are still arriving in Ethiopia.

A fifth refugee camp is being set up in Ethiopia and more than 7,600 recent
arrivals from Somalia are now encamped at the transit centre, the UN said

Two Spanish women working for the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres
(MSF) in Dadaab were kidnapped in October.

Other abductions include a Kenyan driver also seized from Dadaab, a British
woman taken from a coastal resort and a French woman who suffered from
cancer.

French authorities say she has since died in Somalia.

Somalia has not had a functioning central government for more than 20 years
and has been wracked by fighting between various militias.

Al-Shabab has not previously seized foreigners from its own territory, but
armed gangs on land and pirates on the sea are known for kidnappings - demanding
huge ransoms for the release of their captives.

The group has vowed to retaliate against Kenya for sending troops into
Somalia. It has accused the Kenyan army of killing civilians.




As if these people havn"t suffered enough.