Africa Focus: Funding shortfalls, new conflicts worsen plight of refugees in Horn of Africa

The living condition of millions of refugees in the Horn of Africa region has deteriorated rapidly due to funding shortfalls, eruption of new conflicts and negative impacts of climate change, Kenyan officials said on Tuesday.

Harun Komen, the acting Commissioner for Refugee Affairs in Kenya's Ministry of Interior, told Xinhua during an interview in Nairobi that the refugee crisis in the Horn of Africa has worsened yet there are negligible interventions to arrest this slide.

"The refugee situation in the region currently has not improved. In fact, it has worsened. This is due to the influx of asylum seekers from South Sudan, Burundi, Eritrea and Ethiopia," said Komen.

He added that regime change, extreme weather events, ethnic and sectarian conflicts were also fuelling the refugee crisis in the region.

Kenya is the second African country after Ethiopia with the highest population of refugees. According to government's statistics, the East African nation hosts an estimated 575,000 registered refugees.

Komen noted that undocumented refugees from war ravaged neighboring states have settled in large cities and rural towns.

He also said shifting priorities by the international community and a spike in terrorism has complicated efforts to provide a safe haven for refugees scattered across the horn of Africa region.

Komen noted that a decline in donor funding has jeopardized humanitarian assistance for refugees living in camps.

"The refugees are grappling with poverty, inadequate food supplies and livelihood programs. Poor social infrastructure has complicated efforts to resettle Somalia refugees in particular," said Komen.

He urged the international community to scale up funding towards livelihood programs for refugees including education, health, clean water and nutrition.

Silja Ostermann, the Associate External Relations Officer, UNHCR Sub-Office, Dadaab told Xinhua that the repatriation of 100,000 Somalia refugees by December could be a herculean task.

"We are not sure about the feasibility of returning a high number of refugees due to the current precarious security situation and limited absorption capacity in Somalia," Ostermann said in a recent interview.

Provision of food rations, healthcare and education for refugees living in large camps located in northern Kenya has been adversely affected by funding cutbacks.

Osterman said unless the international community injects new financial support, the plight of refugees will deteriorate further.

"We hope the funding shortage will be resolved soon and the normal ration resumed," she said, adding that World Food Program (WFP) has cut the food rations to refugees living in Kenya by 30 percent.

While collapse of nation states is to blame for an influx of refugees in the Horn of Africa, foreign meddling has partly contributed to this phenomenon.

Kenyan analysts blamed the West for worsening the refugees' crisis in Africa and the Middle East through military adventurism.

Rasna Warah, a columnist in one of Kenya's local dailies, said the West's military activities in the Middle East not only led to collapse of strong political institutions but have as well worsened the current refugee crisis.

"In their bid to bring about regime change in Iraq and Libya, the United States and Nato powers unleashed turmoil, anarchy, bloodshed and displacement in the Middle East and Libya," Warah intoned.

She added that Western countries' support for armed militias in the Middle East and North Africa has created a humanitarian crisis never witnessed since World War II. Endit