At least five people have been killed and more than 10 others injured in inter-communal clashes at the Kakuma Refugee camp in northwestern Kenya.
The fighting has pitted the Nuer and the Anyuak communities at the camp predominantly inhabited by South Sudanese. Reports said the injured included one Congolese and one member of South Sudan’s Dinka community.
A witness, Adhieng Akway Oman, told Radio Tamazuj that the clashes that erupted on June 20, as the world marked Refugees Day, had persisted and spread to members of the other communities due to a cycle of revenge.
He disclosed the cause of the clashes as a disagreement over a headscarf.
Former chairperson of the Nuer community, Duol Kang Chak, said they had lost one member while several others were in critical condition in hospitals.
He said the dead person was yet to be buried because tensions remained high in the camp and several people had fled to safety at police stations and to other homes.
Both the Nuer and the Anyuak communities have traded blame for the eruption of the clashes. Radio Tamazuj could not independently verify the accusations.
A letter from the camp manager’s office, dated June 26, 2024, said movement in or outside the camp’s Kalobeyei settlement had been restricted to between 7 PM and 6 AM (+3GMT).
The Kakuma refugee camp was established in 1991 and is located near the border between Kenya and South Sudan adjacent to Lake Turkana. It is administered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and falls under the jurisdiction of the Kenyan government.
The camp hosts more than 200,000 refugees, mainly from South Sudan. Others are from Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Ethiopia, and Uganda.