Thirty-thousand men, women and children are stranded in the desert of northeastern Kenya, in what has rapidly become a humanitarian emergency.
The three camps – Dagahaley, Hagadera and Ifo – known collectively as the ‘largest refugee camp in the world’ – were established 20 years ago to house up to 90,000 people escaping violence and civil war in Somalia. With no end to the conflict in sight, there are now more than 350,0003 people crowded into the camps’ perimeters, while the number of new arrivals is surging. In 2010, a total of 65,000 new refugees were registered, and the figures continue to grow: this year there were more than 41,000 new arrivals in the first four months alone. The UNHCR predicts that, by the end of 2011, Dadaab’s camps will be home to 450,000 people, or twice the population of Geneva.