Socialdynamics

Africa takes on a new strategy to support both refugees and their host communities around the continent

We did a previous study on the situation of refugees in the whole of Africa and what we found out was that the refugee host communities are worse off than refugees themselves and there have been a lot of deficits in development.

the sprawling expanse of Dadaab constitutes the largest refugee camp in the world by population, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Situated in Kenya’s Garissa County near the border with Somalia, this camp has been a city of exiles since 1993 and currently hosts almost 257,000 refugees who mainly come from Somalia. To put it into perspective, if Dabaab were a normal urban settlement, it would be Kenya’s fourth largest city by population with an economy worth about $100 million, a result of donor funds delivered here every year.

In addition to the massive challenge of Dadaab, since 1991, the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya’s Turkana County has hosted people fleeing wars in South Sudan, Somalia, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. According to the UNHCR, there are 160,000 refugees at this camp today.

But the area is also prone to poor rainfall, water scarcity and ultimately massive drought.

“We often observe that numbers of refugees rise during droughts and this compounds the humanitarian situation especially since the violence in the region has not subsided,” explained Raouf Mazou, UNHCR Representative to Kenya. “When we have drought, it means there is a threat of famine, indicating that local communities are also vulnerable.”

This state of affairs has been part of the process behind a new strategy to support both local host communities and refugees in Africa, in a bid to find a sustainable solution to a growing problem.