Kenya plans to shut a refugee camp that is home to nearly a quarter of a million people, mostly Somalis, in the next few months.
The three-decade-old Dadaab camp in eastern Kenya would be closed by the end of August under the Kenyan plan, according to an internal UN document seen by AFP.
A United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) document dated February 28 said the Kenyan government had sent a note verbale informing it of “plans to close the Dadaab camps within a six-month period”.
The note, which was dated February 19, asked the UNHCR “to expedite relocation of the refugees and asylum-seekers residing therein”.
In the document, the UNHCR said it was committed to working with the government on voluntary repatriation to countries of origin, relocating refugees to other parts of Kenya and resettlement to third countries.