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Inside Dadaab: Growing up in the world's largest refugee camp

Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp is home to 350,000 displaced Somalis, where leaving is an option for only a few, and staying is no choice at all. The Kenyan government calls it a breeding ground for Al-Shabab terrorists and wants it shut down. The international community has reached into its pockets to keep it open.
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The Dadaab refugee camp is the largest in the world and was built for 90,000 people. It is home to some 350,000 refugees, mostly from Somalia, making it a settlement the size of Halifax, or London, Ontario. (AP/Jerome Delay)
The same way America never became the same after 9/11, Kenya is going to be different.  It's not going to be business as usual. Kenya is going to change for good after Garissa.- William Ruto, Kenya Deputy President

Kenya's 9-11 moment came last month, in the deadly attack on its Garissa University. But in the wake of those attacks, William Ruto called for something very drastic. He wanted to see the Dadaab refugee camp closed. It's just 100 kilometers from Garissa and officials believe al-Shabab militants who carried out that attack, hid in the camp.

Kenya's Dadaab camp is the largest in the world. (The Associated Press)

But Dadaab is not just any camp. It is the largest in Africa, home to some 350,000 displaced people, mostly from Somalia... making it a settlement the size of Halifax, or London, Ontario. Calls to shut it down came as a shock to aid agencies.

Following a pledge of $50-million last week from the United States to keep the camp open and a further $5-million Euros from Germany to help with repatriation, the imminent and abrupt closure of Dabaab has been forestalled... for now. But its long term future is more uncertain than ever. As is the future of Dadaab's residents... some of whom have lived there since it opened nearly 25 years ago.

As governments and agencies debate the camp's fate, we're focusing today on Dadaab's people.

Sahra Mohamed Ibrahim is a Somali national living in Dadaab. We reached her on the line earlier and spoke briefly because the phone line was poor. 

Abdullahi Mire (left) is a journalist living in Oslo now but grew up in Dadaab camp and said it wasn't a safe place and Mohamud Salat is a graduate student at the University of Alberta, his family still lives in Dadaab camp.

We were also joined by two men who lived most of their lives in Dadaab, but live far away from it today.

Abdullahi Mire is a journalist and activist who left the camp last year. He was in Oslo, Norway.

Mohamud Salat is a graduate student at the University of Alberta. He joined us from Edmonton.

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Next week, as part of our project By Design, we'll follow up on the issue of how we approach refugees. With an unprecedented number of displaced people in the world today, we'll ask whether it's time to abandon the very concept of camps for refugees.

This segment was produced by The Current's Ines Colabrese. 
 

RELATED LINKS

Growing up in the world's largest refugee camp - Al Jazeera

UN: No deadlines for refugee camp closure - Daily Nation

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