The three refugee camps run by the office of the United Nations High Commissoner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Dadaab, Kenya, 50 miles from Somalia, are full. But more and more people arrive here every day.
So the new arrivals—some 350,000 of them—remain in the desert with nowhere to go.
In the northeastern desert of Kenya, newly-arrived refugees from Somalia are living in flimsy shelters made out of sticks, string and plastic sheets. Nenna Arnold/MSF
The camps were established in Dadaab 20 years ago to house up to 90,000 refugees fleeing from Somalia’s civil war. Today they are home to more than 350,000 people, and the numbers of new arrivals keep on growing. Natasha Lewer/MSF
Fatima, 60, arrived in Dadaab last night, after a nine-day journey. With no more space available within the camps to build a home, she is staying with her daughter’s family, in a shelter in the desert. “I left Somalia because my husband was dead and my way of life was destroyed. I felt I had nothing more to lose,” she says. Natasha Lewer/MSF
The shelters provide some respite from the sun and constant dust. But newly-arrived refugees have to wait 12 days, on average, for food, and more than a month for other essentials like blankets and cooking utensils. Nenna Arnold/MSF
Water in the camps is pumped from beneath the desert. But there is never enough to go around, and refugees have to queue for hours to fill jerrycans at the tap. Nenna Arnold/MSF
MSF medical staff go out into the desert every day to find those refugees who are in urgent need of medical attention. Nenna Arnold/MSF
Forty percent of the children have never had any vaccinations, raising the risk of disease outbreaks. Nenna Arnold/MSF
A baby is checked for signs of malnutrition, which is common amongst the under-fives - a result of the drought in Somalia, the hardships of the refugees’ journeys, and the long wait for food once they arrive. Nenna Arnold/MSF
A child’s arm is measured to gauge malnutrition. A second ward has been opened in MSF’s hospital to cope with the large numbers of severely malnourished children with medical complications. Nenna Arnold/MSF
More than 750 malnourished children are also receiving outpatient treatment at the hospital, while a further 7,000 at-risk families queue up every fortnight to receive extra food. Natasha Lewer/MSF
Dadaab is full of children. The number of babies born in the MSF hospital has doubled since last year. But with the population of the camps expected to reach 450,000 by the end of this year, and the availability of essential services shrinking, the future for these children looks bleak. Nenna Arnold/MSF