November 17, 2006
People fighting for food: twice this week…
The past week, I visited the Nairobi informal settlement Mathare where thousands of people had to flee their homes. I am just back from refugee camp Dadaab in North Eastern part of Kenya where at least tens of thousands of Somali refugees were chased from their homes, due to heavy rains and floods. Some of them were new arrivals fleeing from Somalia because they fear insecurity: some of them have to wait six months until they are recognised as a refugee. The only shelter people had was a small blanket, and small construction made out of branches from shrubs. ‘No big news’, international media houses would say, because this is how it works. We need ‘big numbers’ Twice this week, I saw people fight for food: a small box of BP5 biscuits, a small box of UHT Milk. Meanwhile rain