The Kenyan Government has threatened to close the world’s biggest refugee camp, unless the UN moves its 500,000 occupants to neighbouring Somalia, the refugees’ country of origin.
Al-Shabaab terrorists are widely believed to use Dadaab camp as a “breeding ground’ for recruits.
On 2 April they murdered 148 people, nearly all Christian students, at nearby Garissa university.
On 11 April, deputy President William Ruto said the Government was giving the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) three months to close the camp and relocate the refugees back to Somalia.
If they do not “we shall relocate it ourselves”, said Mr Ruto.
Catholic clergy in the region said this did not come as a surprise since they had received numerous reports that the Islamists were radicalising and recruiting from the camp. According to Fr Alfred Muriithi, the recruitment had been going on for some time. “It has spread beyond the camp to the nearby town and villages,” Fr Alfred Muriithi, a priest serving northern Kenya, told The Tablet. “But I think the time is too short. It needs to be gradual, with a camp being built across the border in Somalia,” said Fr Muriithi.
On Tuesday UNHCR spokeswoman Karin de Gruijl urged Kenya to re-think the abrupt closure. She said the agency will work with Kenya to ensure “armed actors” do not intrude into the camp.
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