Dadaab

Just one book can turn a displaced child’s life around and help unite the world, said the newly minted winner of the UN refugee agency’s (UNHCR) annual Nansen award on Tuesday.

Somali-born Abdullahi Mire, who sought refuge with his mother at the vast Dadaab refugee complex in northern Kenya in the 1990s, told UN News the prize money was “a milestone for us” that would benefit kids in the camp by expanding bookshelves and boosting internet connectivity.

The nearly 350,000 predominantly Somali refugees in Kenya’s Dadaab camp cannot be forgotten.

That’s according to Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner for the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR.

Mr Grandi recently took a three-day visit to Kenya and Somalia and visited the camp, considered the largest in the world.

Janie Cangelosi has the story.

Duration: 2'00"

The announcement by the Kenyan government that it’s to close refugee camps is profoundly concerning and needs to be reconsidered, the UN said Monday.

As many as 600,000 people could be affected by the decision to end hosting for asylum-seekers, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

It’s now in talks with Kenyan authorities in an effort to ensure the ongoing safety of those in Dadaab and Kakuma camps, as UNHCR’s Nora Sturm told Daniel Johnson.

Duration: 2’07”

Refugee movements from South Sudan a “disturbing trend”

A culmination of issues, including excess rains, has exacerbated a cholera outbreak at the world’s largest site for displaced people, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has said.

More than 1,000 have fallen sick due to cholera at the Dadaab complex in Kenya, which hosts nearly 350,000 refugees and asylum seekers, the majority of them from Somalia.

The water-borne bacterial illness is blamed for at least 10 deaths since November.

Efforts to help the people of Somalia rebuild their country need to be stepped up with the international community’s help, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said Friday.

Of more than one million Somali refugees, nearly 5,000 have returned to the country since December 2014, despite ongoing insecurity and a lack of prospects, UNHCR says.

Now the UN agency is hoping that some USD $500 million can be found to help the country at a pledging conference in the Belgian capital Brussels next week.