Fleeing drought, Somalis face malnutrition and cholera in Kenya

Ayenat Merci

DADAAB, Kenya (Reuters) – When her three-month-old baby fell ill from malnutrition, Dul Abdirahman Ismael left her village in Somalia and walked for three days through swirling dust and scorching heat to the Dadaab refugee camp right across the border in Kenya. .

Ismael, 26, said she hoped Dadaab would be freed from the hunger and disease she fled to Somalia, where millions of people need help due to the worst drought in decades and soaring food prices.

Instead, the young mother found barren land, overcrowding and scarce resources in Dadaab, one of the world’s largest refugee camps, home to 300,000 people.

In the ward for severely malnourished children, Ismael said her child’s condition had not improved since arriving in Dadaab. Due to severe malnutrition, the child’s head swelled with fluid, a common occurrence in malnourished children.

“There was no improvement,” Ismail said, cradling the baby.

After five unsuccessful rainy seasons in a row, parts of Somalia are on the brink of starvation, while the rest of the country is faring little better. Drought has displaced one million Somalis over the past two years, with about 100,000 people fleeing to Kenya, according to the United Nations.

At least 6,000 Somalis fleeing starvation have arrived at the camp in Dadaab since the beginning of the year, according to the UN, but aid workers say the number not yet registered with the UN system is five times that number.

Those who flee often find no relief in neighboring countries, which have also suffered the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in more than four decades and are suffering from an influx of new refugees.

“The new arrivals are draining the already meager resources of the local population,” said Dr. Marvin Ngao, chief medical officer of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), an aid group that manages medical facilities in Dadaab.

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Dadaab is a vast dusty expanse of shops, busy streets and makeshift houses built from white United Nations tarps. Somalis began to arrive here in 1991, when a civil war broke out in their country.

When refugees first arrive, many depend on the extended families in the camp to share their limited rations, as it can take weeks or months to start getting their own.

This, combined with rising food prices and poor farming and grazing conditions due to drought, means camp residents are also vulnerable to starvation. Last year, 32 children died of malnutrition in that part of the camp run by the IRC, Ngao said.

Aid agencies are struggling to keep up. The UN Refugee Agency said it received only about half of the $11.1 million needed to operate in northern Kenya.

Overcrowding also contributes to the spread of infectious diseases such as cholera. Hundreds of cases have been reported since October, according to the IRC.

Nevertheless, hundreds of Somalis continue to arrive in Dadaab every day. The UN says there could be as many as 90,000 new arrivals by the end of the year.

Dahir Suleyman Ali, a 68-year-old farmer, has resisted pressure from his extended family to leave Somalia for the past two years, but had no choice when the local river dried up late last year.

“It was the worst drought I have ever seen,” he said.

(Reporting by Ayenat Mercy; editing by Aaron Ross and Raissa Kasolovsky)

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