Nairobi - Tensions are rising at the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp complex in North-West Kenya as a massive influx of Somali refugees fleeing a brutal insurgency across the border stretches the facilities to breaking point, a UN official said Thursday. The complex, made up of three separate camps stretching over 50 square kilometres, now hosts 215,000 refugees - the vast majority of them Somali. It was set up 16 years ago to hold only 90,000.
Local residents, who have long been unhappy with the impact of the camp on the community, are losing patience with the seemingly endless stream of refugees.
They have been staging demonstrations and have handed over an official letter of protest to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).
"We have been working with the community, but they have a feeling that much more needs to be done," Emmanuel Nyabera, UNHCR's information officer in Kenya, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
"We are looking at the document and are hoping we can have a meeting with the government tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," he continued.
Nyabera said that an area has been identified for a fourth camp and that discussions on final approval were underway.
However, locals are unlikely to be appeased by an increase in the capacity of the camp. The desert region - in recent years hit by both drought and floods - is far from an economic powerhouse.
Residents in the region want to see more jobs being handed out locally and are concerned about the environmental impact of the camp
An aid worker based in Dadaab, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told
