Kenya Court Suspends Move to Close 2 Refugee Camps

NAIROBI - Kenya's high court on Thursday suspended the government move to shut down two camps that hold hundreds of thousands of refugees from war-torn neighboring countries.

Justice Antony Mrima issued the temporary order, which will run for 30 days, after former presidential aspirant Peter Gichira filed a legal challenge seeking to block closure of the two camps. Kenya's interior ministry had given the U.N. refugee agency 14 days, which ended Wednesday, to come up with a plan for closing the camps, saying that "there is no room for further negotiations." The Dadaab camp in Kenya's east holds more than 200,000 refugees mainly from Somalia, which has not known peace since the 1991 ouster of long-time dictator Siad Barre. The Kakuma camp in northern Kenya hosts nearly 200,000 refugees and asylum seekers, the majority from South Sudan's civil war.