The humanitarian organization Save the Children says Somali refugees continue to pour into the Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya.
It says about 1,000 to 1,500 refugees are arriving every day, and of that number about 800 are children.
|
Definition of Famine: The word famine is a term that is not used lightly by humanitarian organizations. The United Nations describes a crisis as a famine only when the following conditions are met:
Current Famine:
|
“Children are arriving from Somalia malnourished, sick and also psychologically very fragile. Many of them have been walking or taking donkey carts for days or weeks, and they arrive in really bad shape," said Lane Hartill, a representative of Save the Children. He is currently at Dadaab.
Hartill said Save The Children has monitors at the reception centers who look for cases of children who are unaccompanied or “who have become separated from their families because we know on the way that parents often send their children on or become separated from their children,” said Hartill.
One contributing factor to children being separated from their parents is bandit attacks during nights.
These attacks result in family members fleeing in fear and becoming separated.
“So children arrive alone, scared, and we’re ready to help them,” said Hartill.
