South Sudanese refugees in Kakuma camp protest food ration cuts

South Sudanese spotted burning grasses and blocking the roads with stones while striking on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. [Photo: Courtesy].

South Sudanese refugees in Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp rioted and blocked all the roads leading to the camp due to food cuts by the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday.

Mahdi Khor, Kakuma 1 chairman, told The City Review on Tuesday that the refugees had blocked all routes leading to the camp since the ration had been reduced to one kilo per person.

“The refugees began the demonstration today [Tuesday] morning at around 9 a.m. because the UNHCR reduced the food allotment that one individual used to receive to 50 per cent. The refugees have blocked all roadways leading into the camp,” Khor stated.

He stated that the refugees are claiming that the ration cuts will not provide for them and that they will suffer.

“They are really complaining that the 50 per cent out of the 100 per cent of the food they used to receive will not be enough and will not even take a month since receiving food always take time,” he explained.

Khor added that the UNHCR has not yet responded to their walkout and that it may do so on Wednesday.

Kakuma Refugee Camp is a refugee camp located in northwestern Turkana County, Kenya. It was established in 1992 to host unaccompanied minors who had fled the war in Sudan and from camps in Ethiopia.  

The refugee camp is home to over 200,000 people, most of whom are refugees who fled civil wars in South Sudan, Congo, and Somalia. Many people in Kakuma are long-term refugees, living in hopelessness and despair. The situation is especially dire for young people, according to the UN.

Kakuma Refugee Camp is divided into four areas: Kakuma 1, 2, 3, and 4, as well as the Kalo-beyei Settlement, where Congolese refugees were settled.