UN urges Kenya to move Somali refugees to safety

The United Nations called on Kenya on Tuesday to move 5,000 Somali refugees further inland to safety because of reports Islamist rebels were preparing to mount a fresh attack on a nearby Somali border town.

Some 60,000 Somalis have fled their homes since fighting erupted last Thursday between Somali soldiers, backed by allied militia, and al Shabaab militants along the border, it said. Most of the displaced have stayed in Somalia.

At least 27 al Shabaab militants, who have been waging a three-year Islamist insurgency, were killed in the fierce clashes in the Somali border town of Balad Hawo, local residents and a militia commander said at the time.

Tensions are now rising in a makeshift camp in northern Kenya holding 5,000 Somali registered refugees, only 500 metres (yards) from the Somali border, over reports that al Shabaab is regrouping to launch an attack to retake the town, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

“We are urging the Kenyan authorities to speed up relocation of new arrivals so that people can be moved away from the border and moved into a reception centre,” Andrej Mahecic, UNHCR spokesman, told a news briefing.

Most of the refugees at the Border Point One camp are women, children and the elderly living in a deplorable situation, he said. “The health conditions at the site, which has no shelter or lavatories, are quickly deteriorating,” he added.

An unknown number of Somalis have been taken in by communities in Kenya or are renting houses while waiting for the fighting to die down before deciding whether to return home.

An estimated 40,000 Somalis who fled Balad Hawo remain within Somalia, most living under trees without shelter, water, food or sanitation, according to the UNHCR.

Almost 1.5 million Somalis have left their homes inside Somalia because of fighting while another 614,000 live as refugees, mainly in Kenya and other neighbouring countries, according to UNHCR.

Kenya grants Somalis automatic refugee status if they register. But East Africa’s largest economy has long cast a wary eye at its lawless neighbour, which has been plagued by anarchy since warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Al Shabaab’s insurgency against the fragile transitional government has left it in control of much of Mogadishu and huge tracts of southern and central Somalia.

Those living in Kenya’s remote northeastern provinces have reported increasing cross-border raids by al Shabaab.

Twice hit by al Qaeda-linked attacks, Kenya has trained thousands of Somali recruits to beef up troops loyal to Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a move that has drawn condemnation from al Shabaab.

Source:-Reuters.