NAIROBI, July 14 (BERNAMA-NNN-KBC) -- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is mulling a return to Somalia's rebel-held regions to help residents facing hunger as a result of a harsh drought which has prompted the insurgents to appeal for aid.
Around three million Somalis -- about a third of the country's entire population -- are in need of humanitarian aid and last week the al Qaeda-inspired al-Shabaab rebels said they would allow foreign aid groups to operate in the regions they conoll, two years after expelling them.
Thousands of Somalis have fled into neighbouring Kenya and Uganda in the wake of the Horn of Africa's worst drought in decades which has left millions of people facing starvation.
"With needs so great in southern Somalia, the WFP is working with the United Nations Humanitarian Co-ordinator to explore every possibility to return if conditions allow and if the necessary security clearance from the United Nations is granted," the WFP said in a statement received here Wednesday.
Somalis fleeing violence and hunger have flocked at the world's largest refugee settlement in the eastern part of Kenya, an overcrowded camp that is hosting 380,000 refugees, more than four times its initial planned capacity.
Kenya says the influx of refugees into the Dadaab refugee centre has degenerated into a humanitarian crisis.
Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang Wednesday acknowledged that about 2,000 refugees were reporting at the centre each day, stretching facilities further.
The minister said the centre was built to cater for only 90,000 refugees but at the moment there were about 400,000 refugees and more were trooping in each day.
"The congestion is unacceptable, it is hard to plan as structures have been built on the roadways," said Kajwang.
In what seemed to be a blame game the minister distanced himself from the delays in building of the new and better centre to cater for about 40,000 refugees.
"The provincial administration should explain why these refugees are held in deplorable conditions," said the minister.
Kajwang said he had talked to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and that they promised to send out an international appeal for assistance to avert the current situation.
However, the aid agency Oxfam blamed Kenya for the crisis. Oxfam claimed that the government had refused to allow the use of a new camp completed last year to ease congestion at the three-camp Dadaab complex, citing insecurity posed by the al-Shabaab as the country shares a long and porous border with Somalia.
-- BERNAMA-NNN-KBC
Around three million Somalis -- about a third of the country's entire population -- are in need of humanitarian aid and last week the al Qaeda-inspired al-Shabaab rebels said they would allow foreign aid groups to operate in the regions they conoll, two years after expelling them.
Thousands of Somalis have fled into neighbouring Kenya and Uganda in the wake of the Horn of Africa's worst drought in decades which has left millions of people facing starvation.
"With needs so great in southern Somalia, the WFP is working with the United Nations Humanitarian Co-ordinator to explore every possibility to return if conditions allow and if the necessary security clearance from the United Nations is granted," the WFP said in a statement received here Wednesday.
Somalis fleeing violence and hunger have flocked at the world's largest refugee settlement in the eastern part of Kenya, an overcrowded camp that is hosting 380,000 refugees, more than four times its initial planned capacity.
Kenya says the influx of refugees into the Dadaab refugee centre has degenerated into a humanitarian crisis.
Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang Wednesday acknowledged that about 2,000 refugees were reporting at the centre each day, stretching facilities further.
The minister said the centre was built to cater for only 90,000 refugees but at the moment there were about 400,000 refugees and more were trooping in each day.
"The congestion is unacceptable, it is hard to plan as structures have been built on the roadways," said Kajwang.
In what seemed to be a blame game the minister distanced himself from the delays in building of the new and better centre to cater for about 40,000 refugees.
"The provincial administration should explain why these refugees are held in deplorable conditions," said the minister.
Kajwang said he had talked to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and that they promised to send out an international appeal for assistance to avert the current situation.
However, the aid agency Oxfam blamed Kenya for the crisis. Oxfam claimed that the government had refused to allow the use of a new camp completed last year to ease congestion at the three-camp Dadaab complex, citing insecurity posed by the al-Shabaab as the country shares a long and porous border with Somalia.
-- BERNAMA-NNN-KBC
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