Hundreds of refugees in Kenya’s Dadaab camps have been afflicted by a cholera outbreak, according to a humanitarian organisation on Tuesday.
Doctors Without Borders, often known as MSF in French, reported that 2,786 refugees had been impacted thus far, with “an imminent risk of outbreaks of other gastro-intestinal diseases.”
The Dadaab camps house over 300,000 people, and with the neighbouring Somalia suffering from a severe drought, the population is growing, putting a burden on water and sanitary services.
There are plans to build a second camp within the facility to accommodate additional migrants and alleviate overcrowding.
“All efforts to ease overcrowding must include significant investment in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sector to ensure a minimum standard of living for refugees in all camps,” said Hassan Maiyaki, MSF’s national director in Kenya.
MSF has encouraged stakeholders to respond quickly to the crisis in Dadaab, addressing sanitary conditions and preventing disease spread.
The Kenyan government announced plans to shut the Dadaab camps in 2016, citing insecurity due to claims of extremists from Somalia’s al-Shabab organisation hiding there and the camps serving as a conduit for importing weapons.
The UN asked Kenya to reconsider its plans and continue to provide refuge to victims of violence and trauma.
Since then, there has been intermittent discussion over the shutdown, with various ultimatums issued to the UN refugee agency, the most recent in 2021.