Somali refugees board a bus in Daadab to return to Somalia on June 16, 2016. Nearly 70,000 Somalis in the refugee complex have indicated their willingness to return home soon, UN officials said on Monday. FILE PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Prior to the start of the verification three months ago, the UN put Dadaab’s population at 341,574.
But the head count showed that 58,016 fewer persons were actually living in the camps.
Included in the reduced figure for Dadaab’s population are 40,454 persons found not to be genuine refugees
Nearly 70,000 Somalis in the Dadaab refugee complex have indicated a willingness to return home soon, United Nations officials said on Monday.
That amounts to about one-quarter of the 284,000 individuals found to be living in the Dadaab camps in the course of a “verification exercise” that the UN refugee agency conducted in July and August.
These 70,000 Somalis had responded affirmatively when asked by UN census-takers if they want to return home soon, said Duke Mwancha, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency.
“This does not mean in any way that the remaining 75 per cent are not interested in returning,” Mr Mwancha cautioned.
He noted in an email message in response to Nation queries that the remaining 214,000 refugees “were not probed on their return intentions (when and how).”
The outcome of the Dadaab population survey also “does not mean that the 25 per cent will leave immediately,” Mr Mwancha added.