Official: US concerned over reports Somali refugees in Kenya being recruited to fight

US concerned about recruitment of Somali refugees

NAIROBI, Kenya — The Obama administration is concerned about reports that refugee camps in eastern Kenya are being used to recruit combatants for Somalia’s warring groups, a senior U.S. refugee official said Tuesday.

Such action infringes on the neutrality of the Dadaab camps, said Reuben Brigety, a deputy assistant secretary of state. He did not give any details.

“We are very concerned … about reports that the camp has been used for recruitment of combatants inside Somalia,” said Brigety, who is a top official in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

The Associated Press reported late last year that thousands of people, including children, had been secretly recruited and trained inside Kenya to battle Islamic insurgents in Somalia. Kenyan and Somali officials have denied such reports.

Brigety also said one of the Dadaab camps, Ifo, will be expanded in the coming months to accommodate an extra 80,000 Somali refugees. He warned, however, that the planned expansion may not be enough to take in Somalia’s ever-increasing refugee population that is fleeing the country’s sustained conflict, particularly in the capital, Mogadishu.

The three camps in Dadaab host an estimated 270,000 Somali refugees, three times the original capacity of 90,000. Dadaab’s population steadily began increasing three years ago as residents fled an Islamic insurgency that continues to date. The U.N. refugee agency has been lobbying Kenya to offer more land to relocate some of the refugees.

Brigety said local officials in the Dadaab area have agreed to offer more land to expand the camps. This is a key concession because in the past local leaders have accused the U.N. refugee agency of damaging the environment in Dadaab, which was a source of evergreen pasture in otherwise dry, sandy land.

Brigety has been in Kenya since Saturday to discuss how to improve humanitarian aid to Somali refugees in the country with Kenyan, U.N. and other officials.

Somalia descended into anarchy and chaos in 1991 after warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other. Somalia’s weak, U.N.-backed government is battling Islamic militants who the U.S. State Department says are linked to al-Qaida.