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– By Tony KARUMBA (AFP)
Kenya plans to close a refugee camp sheltering nearly 250,000 people, mostly Somalis, in the coming months, according to an internal UN document examined by AFP on Tuesday,
The three-decade-old Dadaab camp, located in eastern Kenya, will be closed by the end of August as part of the Kenyan plan, he added.
A United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) document dated February 28 indicates that the Kenyan government had sent a note verbale informing him of "his intention to close the Dadaab camps within six months".
The note, dated 19 February, called on UNHCR "to speed up the transfer of refugees and asylum seekers residing in the country".
In the document, UNHCR stated that it was determined to work with the government on voluntary repatriation to countries of origin, resettlement of refugees in other parts of Kenya and resettlement in third countries.
Under the guise of anonymity, a member of Dadaab's humanitarian staff confirmed to AFP that all international organizations were aware of a camp closure project, but that the "government discredited ".
Dadaab was considered the largest refugee camp in the world, with a peak of 580,000 refugees. The largest camp is now Cox Bazaar in Bangladesh, home to about 600,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled from neighboring Myanmar.
Today, Dadaab is home to some 230,000 people, the vast majority of whom are Somalis who fled the border after the outbreak of the civil war in 1991. Many of them have been living there ever since.
In May 2016, the government unilaterally decided to close the camp, claiming that it was a terrorist training ground for Shabaab-based Islamist militants based in Somalia.
Tens of thousands of refugees have returned to Somalia as part of a repatriation program.
However, many have experienced drought, hunger and dire conditions in a country where five million people lack food and where African and Somali forces are still fighting Shabaab militants aligned with Al Qaeda.
Amnesty International said it documented government officials threatening the refugees and telling them they had to leave, "raising serious questions about whether the returns were voluntary."
Then, in February 2017, Kenya's High Court declared the camp's closure plan unconstitutional, violating Kenya's international obligations and amounting to persecution of refugees.
The court also declared that forced repatriation was a violation of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.
Since sending troops to neighboring Somalia in 2011, Kenya is regularly attacked by Shabaab militants linked to al Qaeda.
The government has presented Dadaab as a security risk, claiming that Somali Islamists inside the camp had planned Shabaab attacks at Nairobi's Westgate Mall in 2013 and the attack on the city's capital. Garissa University in 2015, but without providing evidence.
The last attempt at closure took place shortly after the June 15 attack on the hotel and Dusit offices in Nairobi, which left 21 dead. At least 12 suspects were arrested in Dadaab as part of the attack.
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