Thursday, April 19, 2007
In a statement issued in Nairobi, the UN refugee agency said two truckloads of much-needed relief were sent on Wednesday to Dobley, a small town which is struggling to cope with a recent influx of an estimated 4,000 displaced Somalis and an outbreak of diarrhea which has so far claimed the lives of six children.
"We have worked closely with the UN Country Team for Somalia to fill an urgent and temporary gap in the assistance already being provided by the UN and NGOs in Dobley," said Eddie Gedalof, UNHCR acting representative in Kenya.
"Controlling the spread of disease on the Somali side of the border also helps to control outbreaks inside Kenya," Gedalof said.
According to local Somali NGOs operating in Dobley, 36 people, up from 19 three days ago, are now hospitalized at a makeshift isolation camp set up on the outskirts of Dobley town to stem the spread of the disease.
Medical supplies have run out at the isolation camp prompting some families to remove their children from the isolation unit and take them home, NGOs say.
Since the beginning of April, an estimated 4,000 displaced Somalis have camped at Dobley following a flare up of violent conflict between the transitional government of Somalia and insurgents in April.
The NGOs report that more people fleeing insecurity in Mogadishu are arriving daily in Dobley.
The border between Kenya and Somalia has remained closed since Jan. 3, 2007.
The UNHCR said an isolation camp in Dobley has two tents sheltering all the 36 patients currently admitted there.
Health workers say with only two tents available, recovering patients are forced to share the same space with newly admitted patients raising fears of re-infection of recovering patients.
The UNHCR also said it was finalizing arrangements for the start of distribution of more than 28 tons of relief supplies that were last week airlifted to Baidoa from the refugee agency's emergency stock-pile in Dubai.
The supplies were later trucked to Afgoye, another Somali town struggling to cope with an influx of an estimated 40,000 people from Mogadishu.
About 213,000 Somalis are believed to have fled from Mogadishu since the beginning of February.
Nearly 100,000 of them have sought safety in the adjacent provinces of Middle and Lower Shabelle and towns such as Afgoye have grown increasingly crowded, new arrivals are now compelled to move further north, notably towards the towns of Baidoa and Balcad.
Insecurity in parts of Mogadishu has continued to jeopardize humanitarian access to the Somali capital and surrounding regions, making the plight of civilians all the more desperate.
Southern and central regions of the country have been hard hit by unprecedented droughts, flooding and three waves of intense fighting within the last year, further compounding the critical humanitarian situation in the country.
Source: Xinhua, April 19, 2007