15,000 refugees in urgent need of humanitarian aid - Exodus from Somalia continues

Since Wednesday of last week, some 15,000 women and children fleeing militants in Somalia have entered neighboring Kenya and are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. According to the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), the Kenyan authorities are utterly overwhelmed by the task of providing for these refugees and require more international support. The human rights organization appealed to aid organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to provide the sufferers with drinking water, food, blankets and tents.

"The situation of the refugees is dramatic", reported STP eyewitnesses. The most urgent need is for food and drinking water. Many of the refugees are suffering from diarrhea as a result of drinking unfiltered water from rivers. Contamination of river water is particularly severe at present because the rains that are usual for this time of year have not come, and water levels are extremely low.

Heavy fighting between Al Shabaab militants and regular Somali soldiers triggered the wave of refugees from the Somalian border town of Belet Hawo. The fighting here, near the Somalian, Kenyan and Ethiopian borders, broke out one week ago and lasted several days. Civilians have been killed in yet unknown numbers, and hundreds of houses have been destroyed and herds stolen. Most of the civilian population fled to the city of Mandera in neighboring Kenya, where they are waiting to this day for help.

In Mandera the situation has become very tense, refugees report, as it has come under fire from parties to the Somalian conflict. Around half of the roughly 70,000 residents fled from their houses because they feared attacks by the Al Shabaab militia. On the weekend, Kenya fortified its border to Somalia.

There are currently 353,000 war refugees from Somalia officially registered in Kenya. In 2010 alone, some 74,000 Somalis sought asylum in neighboring countries. More than 8,000 asylum seekers from Somalia have been refused entry to Kenya. In the face of the escalating war in Somalia, the exodus continues. From January 2011 up to the most recent battles, 13,660 Somalis sought refuge in Kenya.