A file picture taken on August 8, 2011 shows Turkana women and children
waiting for supplementary feeding for infants at a relief and health
centre in Kakuma, Turkana District, northwestern Kenya. PHOTO / FILE
There are growing concerns that a crisis
is looming at Kakuma refugee camp as hundreds of South Sudanese flee
the violence that has rocked the country since December last year.
A
documentary by Al Jazeera has reported that there have been over 6,000
new arrivals at the camp with an estimated 600 South Sudanese making
their way to the camp daily.
According to Rawya Rageh, a reporter, some of the refugees are already going without meals for days.
“There are concerns it could turn into a crisis as the resources (are) stretched at the camp,” she told the Nation.
Reports
indicate that most of the refugees are women and children. There have
also been reports of unaccompanied minors crossing the border for
safety.
The situation is further exacerbated by the
fact that many of the refugees have been in hiding for up to seven days,
a period during which they stayed without food.
It is
reported that at least two schools in Kakauma that had been shut down
during the repatriation of South Sudanese have since been reopened as
reception centers in the camp.
Unlike in Uganda where
refugees are able to farm and fend for themselves, Kakuma is in an arid
area where arable farming is not possible.
TENSION
Simmering
tension has been reported among South Sudanese residents in Kenya as
factions supporting different sides of the divide in the ongoing
conflict form polarised clusters. (READ: Conflict sours relations among South Sudanese in Kenya)
John
Pen De Ngong of the South Sudan Peace Coalition (SSPC) says groupings
have developed along ethnic lines and are now refusing to associate with
each other.
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