Economy

Kenya urged to postpone Dadaab camp closure date

camp

Refugees queue for food rations at the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya. PHOTO | FILE

Two international aid organisations have urged the Kenyan government to halt or postpone the closure of the Dadaab refugee camp at the end of this month.

Refugees International said Dadaab’s closure would not only endanger the lives of hundreds of thousand of Somali refugees “but has already caused irreparable harm and damage.

Both Refugees International and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said that the Kenyan government must lift the November 30 deadline.

“The deadline to close the world’s largest refugee camp must be lifted,” said Jan Egeland, the NRC secretary- general of the NRC, in a statement.

The Tripartite Agreement for the voluntary return of Somali refugees from Kenya was signed by the Kenyan and Somali governments and UNHCR in 2013.