Hundreds of thousands of child refugees live in conditions ‘barely fit for humans’

Hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled the violence in Somalia are trapped in appallingly overcrowded camps in conditions an aid agency has called ‘barely fit for humans.’

Oxfam today said the plight of the refugees in these badly managed camps in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia itself is serious and desperate.

"Hundreds of thousands of children are affected, and the world is abandoning the next generation of Somalis when they most need our help. Why does it seem like you matter less in this world if you are from Somalia?" said Robbert van den Berg, Oxfam International's spokesman for the Horn of Africa.
In north-eastern Kenya, Dadaab camp was meant to hold 90,000 refugees, but it now houses nearly 300,000 people, and an extra 8,000 arrive each month.

“The United Nations now describes this as the worse situation in almost 20 years,” said Paul Lomas, Oxfam regional director in East Africa. “More than three million people are now estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance; 1.7 million have been displaced in the last couple of years. And now on top of the conflict we are facing a situation of drought, probably the worst drought in about 10 years,” he said.

He said although Oxfam’s primary concern was to ensure an adequate response to the humanitarian needs, the ultimate solution to the situation would be an end to the conflict in Somalia, which has not had a functioning central government since 1991. The failed Horn of Africa state is ruled by a UN-backed government, but Islamist insurgents still control large areas.

The international response to the crisis has been ‘shamefully inadequate’, the agency has said and it is calling on Kenya's government to urgently find more land.

"We really need extra land, extra space, to be able to spread people out.” Mr Lomas said. "And that land needs to be allocated soon. We've had assurances for months and months now. Now we need action. Much is being done, and much more must be done. Until people experience safety and peace on the ground, then we will have to continue responding to these humanitarian needs," he added.

Poor sanitation and little access to basic services such as water and medicine need to be urgently addressed to prevent a public health emergency, caused, it says, by a "total failure of the international community to deal effectively with the Somalia crisis".