The decision by the Kenyan government to close the world’s largest refugee camp has been met with both enthusiasm and condemnation as up to 600,000 people stand to be repatriated after most were displaced from neighboring Somalia because of violent, political conflict there.
The Dadaab camp, which is scheduled to be shuttered by May 2017, has been called dangerous in part over suspicions it’s become a breeding ground for terrorism, something the government said it is taking steps to quell by closing the camp. In particular, government and security officials believe there in an al-Shabab sleeper cell there. The Somalia-based al-Shabab militant group has launched a series of terror attacks on the region in recent months.
However, refugee advocacy groups, including the UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, decried the decision and appealed to the Kenyan government to reconsider its decision.
The sun sets over the Ifo extension refugee camp in Dadaab, near the Kenya-Somalia border, in Garissa County, Kenya, July 31, 2011.
In addition to having suspected terror cells in operation at Dadaab, there may be other nefarious issues at play there, Kenyan media outlet the Star reported. Those include a “thriving illicit trade,” said Kenya Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho.