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HEALTH-VIRUS-KENYA
Kenya restricts movement of 400,000 refugees in two camps
NAIROBI, April 29, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Kenya has banned movement in and out
of two huge refugee camps with effect from Wednesday, in a bid to curb the
spread of coronavirus.
Interior Minister Fred Matiangi said the restrictions apply to the Dadaab
camp in eastern Kenya, home to 217,000 people, and the Kakuma camp in
northwestern Kenya, home to 190,000 people.
“The government has ordered for the cessation of movement into and out of
both Kakuma and Dadaab Refugee Camps effective … Wednesday, April 29,
2020,” Matiangi wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
Kenya, which has recorded 384 cases of coronavirus since March 13, has yet
to report any cases in the two camps, which house refugees from Somalia,
South Sudan and Ethiopia — some of whom have lived there for almost two
decades.
However humanitarian organisations say an outbreak in the crowded camps
would be catastrophic.
In Dadaab, “a possible outbreak of the coronavirus would be a disaster
with a quarantine capacity for only 2,000 people in place and only one
dedicated COVID-19 health facility including 110 beds for more than 270,000
people,” Philippa Crosland-Taylor of Geneva-based organisation CARE said on
Twitter.
CARE’s figure of 270,000 includes undocumented refugees and people living
in host communities.
Kenya has not imposed a full lockdown, but has imposed a dusk-to-dawn
curfew and similarly blocked movement in and out of Nairobi, three coastal
towns, and the north-eastern county of Mandera.
UN refugee agency spokeswoman Eujin Byun told AFP the new restrictions
would not mean a “significant change” for the refugees.
She said the issuance of movement passes allowing them to travel out of
the area have been halted since the end of March.
However host communities are now also blocked from leaving the area, and
movement into the area is restricted.
Humanitarian movement will be allowed on a “case by case” basis, and aid
and vital cargo will still be allowed into the area.
BSS/AFP/MRU/2049hrs