One man is dead and eight people are injured following clashes Sunday night between the Dinka and Nuer South Sudanese communities in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp, the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR said.
UNHCR-Kenya spokesperson Emmanuel Nyabera said the fighting began in Kakuma Camp 4 at nine pm as retaliation after a member of one community allegedly raped a ten-year-old girl from the other community.
“Fighting began at 21 hours between the Dinka and Nuer because of the alleged rape of a ten year old girl,” Nyabera told Radio Tamazuj.
“There is a confirmation of one death, male, we are still trying to find out the community,” he continued. “So far, also reports of eight injuries including two women and six men, all in the hospital.”
Nyabera said the situation is now calm after arrival of Kenya police who he said are undertaking an investigation, but he did not know if any arrests had been made over the alleged rape or the clashes.
Kakuma police chief Solomon Wamai and Kenya police spokesperson Zipporah Mboroki did not answer their phones when called repeatedly by Radio Tamazuj.
There are over 88,000 South Sudanese refugees in Kenya, including nearly 44,000 who entered Kenya since the outbreak of civil war in December 2013. Many of them live in Kakuma, which is home to over 170,000 refugees from various nations, according to UNHCR.
File photo: Kakuma III refugee camp in northern Kenya, 2010 (Matija Kovac/Worldpress)