ACT Alliance

By John Davison in Kenya

By nightfall yesterday, hundreds of recently arrived refugees from Somalia were settled into a new tented camp at Ifo in the Dadaab complex in northeastern Kenya, after an intensive weekend of preparations carried out by ACT Alliance member the Lutheran World Federation - the administrators of the camp. The aim is to increase the rate of movement to 1000 a day by the end of the week.

Lennart Hernander, working for LWF in Kenya, underlined the importance of the opening of the Ifo extension, noting that it increased the ability of LWF and partner agencies “to host people in a more secure environment and provide the services the refugees need and are entitled to”.

Space at a premium
Space in Ifo and the other two camps at Dadaab – Dagahaley and Hagadera – has become a source of international concern as the drought crisis in Somalia has led to an average daily influx of 1300 refugees since the beginning of June. With the complex already full to capacity, the new arrivals have been settling on the outskirts of the camps.

At Ifo, these new settlements have been on a flood plain, raising concerns about a further disaster when the rains finally come, and about the local environment. Hopes that the previously laid-out Ifo II camp could open have been stalled by disagreements within the Kenyan government.

The approval of the Ifo extension as well as of an extension to the Hagadera camp will mean a more secure environment for up to 50,000 people. This development was very important, noted Hernander, as it strived to assure “the dignity of those who have fled”.

Last minute push
However, the final go-ahead for the relocations only came on Friday, giving Dadaab staff a huge task to get the sites ready on time. The Ifo site had already been surveyed and plots marked out, but not a single tent had by then been erected. At Hagadera, while detailed plans had been prepared, the proposed site was still bush and scrub land.

“We are the planning team and we are the camp managers,” said Anne Wangari, in charge of a team of 120 LWF staff at Dadaab. “So when the decision is taken to move these people, we have to plan the camps, we have to lay out plots and provide access and set up tents in readiness for the movement.”

She led the effort over the weekend, which saw a bulldozer and refugee workers deployed clearing ground at Hagadera and setting up tents at Ifo. More than 100 tents were put up on July 24 alone, and the teams are looking to pitch twice that number by July 29. The Hagadera site is expected to be receiving its first refugees by that time as well.

"Even in these difficult circumstances, the staff are pushing on and doing their best to deliver," said Wangari.

The move
Yesterday, information teams went to areas of the outskirts of Ifo camp to tell people that this was the day on which they would move to their new living space. After detailed lists of the families involved were read out, the business of dismantling temporary shelters began.

Women, often with a baby on their backs, took off layers of blankets and sheeting from bent wood frames and painstakingly gathered everything, including twine and strips of material, for later use. Then they bundled everything together for carrying to the new site.

Among them was Fatouma Mohammed, 50, her daughter and the eight children they have between them. A month ago, they had fled the drought in Somalia that killed their livestock and made it impossible to farm.

“I am pleased that the agencies will help us to settle somewhere,” she said. “I hope at some time they will help me to build a durable structure to live in, but now I am very happy to have a tent.”