Kenya give UN three months to remove Somali refugees

Government crackdown on Somalis is a reaction to the Garissa university massacre, carried out by Somali gunmen

11 April 2015, 5:35pm

1 min read

Emergency services at the college in Garissa, in the aftermath of the gun attack (Photo: Twitter)

Kenya has given the United Nations a three month ultimatum to remove a camp sheltering over half a million Somali refugees, as part of its response to the murder of 148 people by Somali gunmen at Garissa university on April 2nd.

In a statement justifying the move, Deputy President William Ruto said “we have asked the UNHCR to relocate the refugees in three months, failure to which we shall relocate them ourselves."

Kenya has in the past accused Islamist militants of hiding out in Dadaab camp which it now wants the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR to move across the border to inside Somalia.

Dadaab hosts more than 600,000 thousand Somali refugees.

Ruto said Kenya had started building a 700-km wall along the entire length of its border with Somalia to keep out members of the Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab.