When her three-month-old child became sick from malnutrition, Dool Abdirahman Ismael left Somalia. She trekked for three days through dust and heat to the Dadaab refugee camp on the Kenyan border.
Ismael, 26, said she hopes Dadaab is protected from Somalia’s famine and illnesses she escaped from. Millions are in need due to the worst drought in decades and soaring food costs.
Instead, she found a bleak, congested environment with limited amenities in Dadaab. Dadaab is said to be one of the world’s biggest refugee camps.
Furthermore, she said that her son’s health in the ward for very malnourished children has not improved since his arrival in Dadaab. The youngster’s head swelled with fluid due to severe malnutrition. A frequent symptom of child malnutrition.
Parts of Somalia are on the verge of starvation after five consecutive failed rainy seasons. Meanwhile the remainder of the nation is doing considerably better. According to the United Nations, a million Somalis have been displaced by drought over the previous two years. In addition, around 100,000 fleeing to Kenya.
Since the beginning of the year, at least 6,000 Somalis escaping starvation have arrived in Dadaab alone.
According to relief workers, this figure has not yet been documented in the UN system. However, it is up to five times higher.
Refugees often get little assistance from neighboring nations. This is because nations in the Horn of Africa are also experiencing the worst drought in more than four decades. They as well, are complaining about the flood of new migrants.
“The immigrants are eroding the already limited resources available to the original population,” stated IRC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Marvin Ngao.
OVERFLOW
Dadaab is a huge, dusty area with stores, bustling streets, and tarpaulin homes constructed by the United Nations. Somalis immigrated to the United States in 1991, when their nation was engulfed in civil conflict.
Many migrants depend on intergenerational networks in the camp to distribute their meagre rations, which might take weeks or months to arrive. Together with increased food costs and bad agricultural and pastoral conditions caused by the drought, this means that even camp members who have lived there for years are at danger of famine. 32 children died of hunger in 2012, and humanitarian organizations are straining to keep up. The UN agency for refugees reported receiving just about half of the $11.1 million it needs to operate in northern Kenya.
Moreover, overpopulation promotes the spread of infectious illnesses such as cholera.
According to the IRC, hundreds of instances have been documented since October.
Yet, hundreds of Somalis come daily in Dadaab. The United Nations estimates that there will be around 90,000 additional arrivals by the end of the year.
Throughout the previous two years, Dahir Suleiman Ali, a 68-year-old farmer, has resisted pressure from his extended family to leave Somalia. Nevertheless, when the local river dried up late last year, he had little alternative.
That was the worst drought he had ever seen.
