New camp to host fresh refugees from South Sudan

The United Nations refugee agency is building a new settlement near the Kakuma camps as thousands more South Sudanese are expected to cross into Kenya this year.

The Turkana County government agreed last month to allocate 1,500 hectares to ease congestion in the camps that currently hold nearly 200,000 refugees.

Up to 60,000 Kakuma residents will be moved to the new settlement in Kalobeyei, eight kilometres to the northwest on the highway to Lokichoggio.

The Kalobeyei facility will also benefit 23,600 locals who will be given equal access to health care, schools and clean water, the UN said.

As another innovation, a sizable portion of the Kalobeyei land is being reserved for farming and other economic activities as a means of promoting self-reliance among refugees and the host community.

This “different and better approach” to refugee assistance represents a “major paradigm shift”, the UN explained.

The initiative coincides with new developments in the refugee situation in Kenya.

Under a recent agreement involving the UN and the governments of Kenya and Somalia, as many as 150,000 Somali refugees in the Dadaab camps are to be voluntarily returned to their homeland this year.

Another 16,000 refugees, mostly from Ethiopia, are to be transferred from Dadaab to Kakuma.