Ethiopia: Ten Somali Children Die Daily in Kobe Refugee Camp – UNHCR

By Staff Writer

ADDIS ABABA--An average of ten Somali children under the age of five die daily of hunger-related causes in a refugee camp in Ethiopia, according to a UNHCR report released on Tuesday.

 The agency said that an assessment of mortality in one of four refugee camps at the Dollo Ado complex in Ethiopia has found that death rates for children have reached alarming proportions especially among the latest arrivals. UNHCR reported this "alarming" increase in the number of deaths at Kobe camp after completing an assessment this week. The main cause was malnutrition, although a measles outbreak has contributed to the high mortality rate.

Kobe camp opened in June when Somalis fleeing drought and conflict poured over the border in large numbers. It reached its 25,000 capacity in a month, and while new arrivals from Somalia are being directed elsewhere the death toll is not slowing.

“Since the Kobe refugee camp opened in June, at least ten children under the age of five have died every day,” said the UNHCR.

In a briefing in Geneva, UNHCR said the average of ten deaths a day stretched back to late June, meaning that at least 500 young children had died in less than two months.

Separately, some 17,500 Somalis have crossed into the Gode and Afder areas of Ethiopia, 150 miles north-east of Dollo Adow, in the past six weeks.

Ethiopia currently hosts more than 100,000 Somali refugees fleeing drought in their country.

Since their arrival in Ethiopia, the government and UN agencies have been calling for urgent humanitarian relief assistance for the drought-affected population. Currently humanitarian aid is said to have reached them but there are serious reports of mortality among the children in the refugee camps.

“While malnutrition is the leading cause of the high mortality rate, suspected measles is compounding the problem. Across all Dollo Ado sites we have seen 150 cases of suspected measles and 11 related deaths. The combination of disease and malnutrition is what has caused similar death rates in previous famine crises in the region,” said UNHCR.

“UNHCR is urgently working with partners to respond to the emergency and control the suspected measles outbreak. A mass vaccination campaign against measles was completed in Kobe camp on Monday, targeting all children between the ages of six months and 15 years. It will continue in the other camps in the coming days” it added.

 Preliminary assessments showed that an estimated 95 percent of the new arrivals were women and children, with the majority in very poor nutritional and health conditions.

The continued exodus and growing death toll from the famine in Somalia is raising fresh questions about the culpability of the al-Shabaab insurgent group, which controls most of the southern part of the country. Though the causes of the famine or near-famine conditions in southern Somalia are numerous – including drought, high food prices and the absence of a government for two decades – the al-Qaida-linked Islamist movement is said to have played a significant role.