Increasing numbers of malnourished young children are dying after trekking for weeks to receive emergency aid in what has become the “worst humanitarian disaster in the world”, UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres said.
“We ran because of starvation,” said Ulmay Abdow Issack, 32, who spent three weeks walking to the border with her six young children and sick husband. “We didn’t have anything to eat or drink on the journey.”
For Muslima Adan Hassan, 35, the journey was even more arduous. Two sons and a daughter died during their 35-day trek to Dadaab.
From the border, refugees have to travel 80km across the Kenyan desert to reach the camp, often on foot.
“We have cases where children are eaten by hyenas and lions,” said Abdullahi Hussein Sheikh, one of the refugees.
In June, the number of new arrivals in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp tripled to 1,300 people each day. International agencies have been unable to provide food aid inside Somalia due to insecurity and hostility from the Islamist rebel group, al Shabaab, which controls much of the country.
“I have visited many refugee camps in the world. I have never seen people coming in such a desperate situation,” Guterres said on Sunday during a visit to refugee camp, the world’s biggest, 80 km (50 miles) from the Kenya-Somali border.