Somalis Control Kakuma, says Ethiopians and Rwandans

[IRONm@N]

Turkana women, with Mohican hairstyles and heavy strings of coloured beads around their necks, sell sacks of charcoal to the refugees under the disdainful gaze of Somali traders sitting in front of shops stocked with cheap Chinese imports.Fourteen nationalities live at Kakuma, which was established in 1992 to shelter south Sudanese fleeing war but later grew to accommodate people from other tragedies.

Today Somalis are in the majority, representing 56 percent of the camp's inhabitants, way ahead of the south Sudanese (30 percent), many of whom have gone back home with the return of peace.

The different nationalities have distinctive living arrangements: each Somali family has set up camp in a separate spot, whereas several Sudanese families pile in together behind thorn hedges.

Burundians and Congolese live in mini-villages made of mud huts, as they would in their own countries.

"We all live like colleagues, we all get on well like good neighbours," says Byamungu Majimba, who fled the mountains of South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo "to escape from a tough situation".

Mohammed Kassim of the UN refugee agency agrees that the different groups "coexist very well". "What problems there are are caused by people living at such close quarters," he says.

"Tensions are often concentrated around water points," adds one of the agency's Kenyan staffers.

Said Abdi Salat, who works for a local nongovernment organisation, says conflicts between the various communities were common until 2007. "But the situation improved after a lot of south Sudanese left," he says.

"Nowadays it's mainly domestic issues, that we try to resolve at community level."

Sometimes tensions flare within the same community, for example between the Hawiye and the Darod, two Somali clans traditionally pitted one against the other.

But the main source of insecurity is periodic night-time raids by armed local Turkana to loot homes inside the camp.

"What violent incidents there are, are isolated cases," says Marcel, a Burundian who last May fled what he calls the "dictatorship" in his country and only gives one name.

For him the hardest thing is coping with cramped camp life, with refugees only allowed to cross the perimeter with the permission of Kenyan authorities.

"We're like prisoners and we're short of everything," he complains. "There are the thorns, the scorpions, and then the Turkana who will finish you off if you set foot outside the camp."

Refugees from smaller groups, like the Burundians, Congolese, Ethiopians and Rwandans, also grumble about losing out to the larger, more powerful ones.

"The Somalis and the Sudanese have the best of it," says Marcel. "The Somalis in particular control the camp, you know -- they've been here for such a long time."

"With their Kenyan Somali brothers behind them, they can move mountains," agrees Tusa Mohamed, a lanky, copper-skinned leader of the Oromo people from Ethiopia.

"But the basic rule is if you pay, you can get everything you want. Our problem here is not those who live next to us but rather how to eat and live decently."

Source: AFP
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hawiye and Darod fight even if they are in refugee camps, 14 ethnic groups live there side by side, but Somalis are fighting over running the camp.

[Cirwaaq]

Possible opportunity in this war period and migration is passive territorial expansion

[paidmonk]

Mohammed Kassim of the UN refugee agency agrees that the different groups "coexist very well". "What problems there are are caused by people living at such close quarters," he says.

Sometimes tensions flare within the same community, for example between the Hawiye and the Darod, two Somali clans traditionally pitted one against the other.

[vangandi]

Imagine being in a refugee camp and the first person you see is the one that stole and kicked you out of your home. And now your sharing qamadi together?

[IRONm@N]

Imagine being in a refugee camp and the first person you see is the one that stole and kicked you out of your home. And now your sharing qamadi together?

so you destroyed Somalia with your Darod vs Hawiye wars and competition, and majority of peaceful Somalis that weren't involved in this had to fled, and now they have to tolerate your childish conflicts in refugee camps, and Europe and America?