Kenya will continue with its plan to close the world’s biggest refugee camp, and is drawing up a timetable to help with the same.
The country’s interior minister on Wednesday said the Kenyan government has commenced the exercise of closing the complex of Daadab refugee camp, adding that state funds had been allocated towards the closure of the camp.
Kenya’s government has long said Dadaab, which lies near the Somali border, has been used by Islamists to launch attacks, such as the Westgate shopping mall assault in Nairobi in 2013.
The Interior Ministry says the Daadab camp hosts about 600,000 refugees, many of whom are from neighbouring Somalia and South Sudan.
Some refugees are said to have lived in the camp for decades now, some even born there.
Last year, Kenya said it was setting a three-month deadline to close Dadaab, but backtracked on the plan following U.N. criticism of any forced return.
