About 400 South Sudanese refugees will be relocated from Dadaab to Kakuma refugee camp following Kenyan government’s decision to close down the camp.

Latest reports by the UNHCR show that Kenya hosts more than 100,000 South Sudanese refugees, and thousand others from other war-torn countries like Uganda, Somalia among others.

Jimmy Deng Makuac, the Minister of Plenipotentiary at the South Sudan Embassy in Kenya, says the foreign mission is engaging the Kenyan government on the matter.

“We told the Kenyan government that there is a need to reconsider their decision of including South Sudanese in the closure of the refugee camps. So, as a result, I think Kakuma has been exempted,” he said.

The Kenyan Directorate of Immigration says the Dadaab refugee camp will be permanently closed by November this year.
“We have some of our refugees in Dadaab camp; they are between three hundred to four hundred, and we are talking to the Kenyan Government that if the camp is to be closed down, the UN should repatriate our people to Kakuma, where the rest of our citizens are,”said Mr Makuac.

Early this month, the Kenyan Government announced that it would close down Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps because they are being used by Somali based terrorist group, Al-Shabab.

Kakuma camp was later spared, but about 10 million US dollars was announced, to facilitate relocation of refugees from Dadaab which hosts mostly Somali refugees.