As if having to flee your home and your country because of famine isn’t enough, many Somali women and girls experience street harassment and even rape en route to refugee camps (and then at the camps) in Kenya.
“The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Regional Director for Africa Bunmi Makinwa has expressed concern that women and young girls are being subjected to rape and other forms of sexual harassment when fleeing from Somalia to camps in Kenya.
Mr. Makinwa who visited the Dadaab Camp to assess the condition on Friday urged aid partners to also focus on helping victims and survivors of sexual abuse since they require medical attention and psychosocial assistance.
‘UNFPA is working with partners to offer lifesaving psychosocial assistance to women who have survived sexual violence. Indeed, UNFPA was informed by partners that many women had been subjected to rape and sexual harassment during their long journey to the camp,’ he said….
Dadaab remains the world’s largest refugee settlement. Its Somali population has risen to over 400,000 people since famine was declared in the Horn of Africa. The crisis continues to affect 12.4 million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
Malnutrition rates continue to rise, deaths increase day by day as people fleeing the famine in Somalia enter the Kenyan border at estimates of 1,300 every day.”
Additionally, Voice of America reports that women and girls also face sexual assault at the refugee camps and when they leave camps to gather firewood. In response, UN workers are providing women with firewood (something the UN often does at refugee camps for this very reason) and moving women who are located on the outskirts of the camps into more populated areas where they may be safer.
But aside from providing much-needed assistance to women and girl survivors who arrive at the camps, it doesn’t sound like the UN – or any other group – is trying to prevent the harassment and assaults women and girls face on the roads as they flee Somalia…Surely something can be done?
