Starving, exhausted, dying

AT the largest refugee camp in the world, Dadaab, in north-eastern Kenya, children are dying within 24 hours of arrival, despite receiving emergency treatment and care.

Overcome by hunger and exhaustion, the United Nations said that an unknown number of children under the age of five are dying.

The camp, built to house 90,000 but now home to more than four times that number, was already well over capacity before a recent influx of 30,000 refugees. The situation is so chaotic that many go without food aid for days, even weeks.

With up to 10 million people in need of immediate food aid following the worst drought in east Africa in 60 years — affecting Somali, Ethiopia and Kenya — Irish aid agencies, including Trócaire and Oxfam Ireland, have launched emergency appeals.

Maurice McQuillian, Trócaire’s humanitarian programme manager, said malnutrition rates are up to five times higher than the emergency threshold.

“A combination of drought and rising food prices has pushed the region into a humanitarian crisis,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Government has announced a further €400,000 for emergency operations in the drought-stricken region, bringing the total emergency funding from Irish Aid to the region in 2011 up to €4.4m.