The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is working to control a cholera outbreak in the Dadaab camps in northern Kenya which has so far killed seven refugees.
“The outbreak has been attributed to unhygienic conditions in some sections of the camps,” Duke Mwancha, Kenya’s spokesman for the UNHCR told the Nation.
Living conditions for the 330,500 mainly Somali refugees in the Dadaab complex have deteriorated since the onset of El Nino rains in November.
Latrines in the camps are not sufficient due to shortfalls in donor funding, Mr Mwancha said, noting that the UN “is continually making efforts to increase latrine coverage.”
In June, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees ordered a temporary 30 per cent reduction in rations for both the Dadaab and Kakuma camps as a result of insufficient donations for UNHCR’s work in Kenya.
UNHCR BUDGET
The agency's budget for both the Dadaab and Kakuma camps totalled $257 million (Sh26 billion) for 2014.
Mr Mwancha added, in regard to the cholera outbreak, that the supply of clean water in Dadaab camps was sufficient.
“Public awareness and hygiene promotion campaigns that have been underway in the camps since the start of the rains have helped in controlling the disease from spreading further,” he said.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), a charitable group working in Dadaab for the past 20 years, is warning, however, that the cholera epidemic could spread beyond the 541 refugees already reported to be infected.
“The fact that this outbreak has occurred further highlights the dire hygiene and living conditions in the camp and a lack of proper long-term investment in sanitation services”, said Charles Gaudry, MSF head of mission in Kenya.
Mr Gaudry said Dadaab residents have not received soap for the past two months.
However, in an email to the Nation, Mr Mwancha said that “soap distribution is routinely done in all camps.”
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