Kenyatta to meet UN officials over refugee camps closure

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to meet 15 UN Security Council officials to discuss the impending shutdown of the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps in the country.

The talks in Nairobi will also touch on the refugees’ repatriation, as well as the general situation in Somalia. Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper reports that the discussions will be a follow-up to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s plea to President Kenyatta asking him not to shut down the camps.

Last week, the Kenyan government had announced setting a 10 million USD fund to facilitate the closure of the Dadaab camp, which is the largest in the world.

Announcing the closure earlier this month, the country’s Interior Minister said the camp had become a breeding ground for terrorists and that some of the largest terrorist attacks, including the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi, had been planned and executed from Dadaab.

Dadaab is home to some 350,000 Somali refugees who now have until May 2017 to leave the camp.