Somali-American Ilhan Omar was sworn into office on Thursday, and is now representing the state of Minnesota as one of two Muslim women who are the first to serve in the United States Congress. Omar is one of more than 100 women who are now members of the 116th Congress,…
The World Food Programme says it’s been forced to cut rations to 420,000 refugees living in the Dadaab and Kakuma camps in northern Kenya because of insufficient funding. The United Nations food relief agency said Monday that those refugees will receive 70 percent of their current food allotment because of…
Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia has urged Kenya to revisit its decision to withdraw troops from South Sudan, the state-affiliated FANA news agency reported. “We want the government of Uhuru Kenyatta to let its troops remain in South Sudan and support the efforts being made to restore peace in…
Kenya will postpone the controversial closure of its Dadaab refugee camp for at least six months, citing the difficult security situation in Somalia and a United Nations appeal as factors in the decision. Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery said Wednesday that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had…
Kenyan government officials are coercing refugees to return to Somalia – and the very risks they’ve tried to flee, the Amnesty International human rights organization said in a report released Tuesday. More than 280,000 refugees, most of them Somali, live in the Dadaab refugee camp that Kenya announced in May it intends…
Kenya says Dadaab closure does not violate rights of Somali refugees Kenyan officials lashed out Friday at critics of the country’s plan to close the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp, calling a new Human Rights Watch report “malicious and baseless” for its strong stance against the involuntary repatriation of some 260,000…