UN to open new camp in Kenya for refugees from Sudan, South Sudan

April 27, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – A new United Nations (UN) refugee camp will be opened in northern Kenya to cope with an increased influx of Sudanese and South Sudanese fleeing violence between their countries, Reuters reported on Friday.

The new camp is planned to be setup in an area called Kalobeyey, located some 25 km from Kakuma refugee camp which already hosts 94,000 refugees and about to exceed its capacity of 100,000 due to an ongoing influx of refugees from South Sudan.

“We are receiving 100 refugees from South Sudan each and every day [in Kakuma]” Emmanuel Nyabera, the UN refugee agency’s spokesman in Kenya, told Reuters. “In the next two to three months, we are concerned the camp will be full.”

The UN official said that they expect the new camp site in Kalobeyey to host 80,000 people.

Meanwhile, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in its weekly bulletin that 12,500 civilians have been displaced as a result of clashes in Talodi town of Sudan’s border state of South Kordofan between government forces and rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N).

OCHA said that the displaced civilians fled Talodi, where the warring sides clashed several times recently, to an area called El Leri.

Separately, the UN agency’s report stated that almost 144,000 refugees from South Kordofan and Blue Nile States are registered in camps in South Sudan and Ethiopia.

(ST)

Al Jazeera English | Sudan violence sparks exodus into Kenya | 28 April 2012