- DADAAB, Kenya: As tens of thousands of refugees flee Somalia’s famine for Kenya’s arid east, residents say they are torn between welcoming their fellow ethnic Somalis — and feeling threatened as the new arrivals squeeze the area’s limited resources and compete for jobs.
Officials fear the new influx could force long-simmering tension in the region to boil over. Police say they have already seen locals clash with refugees who have recently crossed the nearby border. That has prompted police to ask for hundreds more officers.
Some 1,500 refugees arrive each day at the overcrowded United Nations-run refugee camps in Kenya’s east.
The UN says more than 12 million people in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti need aid because of a devastating drought.