Hundreds of thousands of people in the world's largest refugee camp are experiencing a "humanitarian emergency" because aid work has been scaled down, the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Thursday according to dpa. The sprawling Dadaab complex in northern Kenya mostly hosts Somalis who have fled conflict and drought in their homeland. Built in the 1990s to host just 90,000 people, Dadaab is now home to nearly470,000 refugees. "Refugees are paying the price for a conflict they are trying to escape and are at risk of becoming victims of the system that should assist them," MSF said, in a criticism of the United Nations and Kenyan government, who run the camp. "The health of refugees is at risk of deteriorating rapidly while humanitarian aid agencies are struggling to provide meaningful assistance on an ongoing basis," the group said. MSF runs hospitals and clinics in the camp. Two of its employees were kidnapped last year from Dadaab, and they remain in captivity. At the height of international attention on Somalia's drought last summer, humanitarian operations in the camp were increased. But since October, the medical charity says, relief work has been in decline. While the UN said Somalia saw a good harvest in recent weeks, reducing food shortages, the humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa nation is still dire. The country has been caught in a civil war for over 20 years and millions of people depends on handouts to survive.
