KENYA: Attack on aid worker in Somali refugee camp raises fears of insecurity in North

Record ID: 346019

  • Title: KENYA: Attack on aid worker in Somali refugee camp raises fears of insecurity in North
  • Date: 10th December 2008
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) RUBEN ONDIEKI, AID WORKER, SAYING: "I can not pinpoint exactly who did this but I suspect it could be either people from Somalia or even the local bandits."
  • Embargoed: 25th December 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVAEJVUE6OM2YT7JPS7T1DDEQD5P
  • Story Text: Unidentified gunmen shot at an ambulance belonging to German Aid agency (GTZ) on Monday (December 8) and injured one of its employees in northern Kenya.
    The aid workers provide health and nutritional services in Dadaab refugee camp which houses over 160,000 refugees. Most of the refugees come from neighbouring Somalia and are fleeing a humanitarian crisis caused by years of conflict.

    "On our way to the field as usual almost 500 metres from our barrier, bandits came from the bush and started spraying bullets. Actually, I saw about four guys who had blankets. I was seated just behind, I was the last person near the door and the bullet got through my right thigh," said Rodgers Wafula, the injured aid worker.
    The remote northern Kenya region is one of the country's most underdeveloped regions and is prone to banditry. Aid workers say they do not know whether the attackers were Kenyans or Somalis.
    Somalia has had no effective government since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, plunging the country into chaos.
    Aid workers fear that the continuing violence in the Horn of Africa nation will contribute to insecurity in northern Kenya as illegal arms make their way over the porous border.

    "I can not pinpoint exactly who did this but I suspect it could be either people from Somalia or even the local bandits," said Ruben Ondieki, a clinical officer at the camp.
    Violence in Somalia has killed over 10,000 people since the beginning of 2007 and uprooted one million. The UN says 3.2 million people may need food aid later this year but donors have only funded about a third of a 637 million U.S. dollar aid appeal.
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