Situation dire in East African refugee camps

Conditions in Dolo Aldo transit camp near Somalia-Ethiopia border “a good deal worse” than in Kenya.

Ethiopia

In drought-hit Horn of Africa countries, refugees are seeking food and water in neighbouring countries as conditions deteriorate.

Reporting from the Dolo Ado transit camp near the border between Somalia and Ethiopia, Al Jazeera’s Peter Greste said the situation is a “good deal worse” than in Kenya.

“It takes three solid days of driving over terrible roads to get here from Addis Ababa and that’s where the main supplies are having to come from,” he said.

Greste said that sometimes Somalis have to walk almost “50km on foot between watering holes”. 

“When they leave their home in Somalia, they are already deeply malnourished and yet this remains an attractive place for them, a better alternative.”

The people in the refugee camps in Ethiopia are also “predominantly Somalis and they’re having to walk their way through the conflict zones though a lot of the rebel posts,” Greste said.

“A lot of the people are telling us the the [al-Shabab] rebels are intercepting refugees as they try to cross. They’re telling them that they really shouldn’t be coming.”

Source: Al Jazeera