TVCE (DADAAB) — The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR is planning for as many as 50,000 Somalis to return home this year from a Kenyan camp that is now home to 350,000 people.
No fewer than 6,000 Somalis returned from Dadaab camp last year under a voluntary repatriation programme, while an additional 1,200 have left so far in January, including a group of families and individuals who left the sprawling camp on buses on Thursday.
Somalia is trying to rebuild after two decades of war and chaos. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled to Kenya and other neighbouring states after civil war erupted in 1991. More fled the 2011 famine.
“We are trying to plan for a possible 50,000 people (returning) in 2016,” Raouf Mazou, the UNHCR representative to Kenya, told Reuters in Dadaab camp.
He said, however, this figure for possible returnees might not be achieved without additional targeted aid to help those seeking to resettle meet basic requirements, such as school fees. “They need specific support inside Somalia,” he said.
Returnees already receive a one-off cash handout and some basic foodstuffs and other items to help them get reestablished.
