Kenya orders closure of Dadaab, Kakuma refugee camps

Nairobi gives UN refugee agency two weeks to present plan to shut the two sprawling refugee camps.

Kenya has ordered the closure of two sprawling camps that host hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighbouring Somalia and gave the UN refugee agency – UNHCR – two weeks to present a plan to do so. The Dadaab and the Kakuma refugee camps in northern Kenya host more than 410,000 people, a small proportion of whom are from South Sudan. Citing national security concerns, authorities in Nairobi first announced their intention to shut the Dadaab camp, which is closer to the border with Somalia than Kakuma, in 2016.