With Travel Ban On Hold, Somali Refugees Take Off For The U.S.

For the first time since President Trump's travel ban went into place, Somali refugees are leaving Kenya for the United States. A court has put the ban on hold.</s>Image copyright AP Image caption Set up in 1991, Dadaab refugee camp is the size of a city

The High Court in Kenya has blocked the government's bid to close the largest refugee camp in the world.

A directive to shut the Dadaab camp and forcibly repatriate about 260,000 Somali refugees living there was issued last year.

The deadline for its closure had been extended until May, but a high court judge ruled the decision was tantamount to an act of group persecution.

The government says it will appeal against the ruling on security grounds.

It said that attacks on its soil by the Somalia-based al-Shabab group had been planned in the camp.

"The camp had lost its humanitarian nature and had become a haven for terrorism and other illegal activities," Kenyan government spokesman Eric Kiraithe said.

"The lives of Kenyans matter. Our interest in this case, and in the closure of Dadaab refugee camp, remains to protect the lives of Kenyans," he added.

Dadaab was set up in 1991 to house families fleeing conflict in Somalia, and some people have been living there for more than 20 years.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and lobby group Kituo Cha Sheria challenged the decision in court, saying it was discriminatory and contrary to international law.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Inside Dadaab - the world's biggest refugee camp

"The government's decision specifically targeting Somali refugees is an act of group persecution, illegal discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional," Judge John Mativo said.

The orders are excessive, arbitrary and disproportionate, he said.

Border fence

The BBC's Nancy Kacungira in the capital, Nairobi, says the ruling means the government has to start putting in place mechanisms that will restore regular operations at the camp even though it will launch an appeal.

Kenya's refugee department had already been shut, which meant that new-born babies were not being registered as refugees, Said Abuka, a community leader and refugee in Nairobi, told the Associated Press news agency.

Amnesty International welcomed the ruling, saying it affirmed Kenya's legal obligation to protect people who seek safety from harm and persecution.

"Today is a historic day for more than a quarter of a million refugees who were at risk of being forcefully returned to Somalia, where they would have been at serious risk of human rights abuses," the rights group's Muthoni Wanyeki said in a statement.

Mr Kiraithe said since the closure of Dadaab was announced, more than 51,000 Somalis had voluntarily returned to Somalia.

"We are encouraged that Somalia continues to stabilise politically more so with the election of a new president," he added.

Somalia's 'Mr Cheese' president has a lot on his plate

Somalia's UN-backed government, with the help of a 22,000-strong African Union force, is battling Islamist group al-Shabab to regain control of the country.

But it has only managed to secure major towns.

The militants, who impose a strict version of Islam in the areas they control, still mount deadly bombings and have carried out a string of attacks in neighbouring Kenya.

Kenya is currently building a fence along its 700km (435-mile) border with Somalia, but has completed only 4km so far.</s>Newly elected President of Somalia and former prime minister Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo gestures as he makes an address on February 8, 2017 (AFP Photo/MUSTAFA HAJI ABDINUR)

Mogadishu (AFP) - Former Somali prime minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who holds joint American citizenship, was elected president on Wednesday, vowing to crack down on corruption and Al-Shabaab militants.

The 55-year-old former premier, whose hails from the Darod clan and who goes by the nickname "Farmajo", won after incumbent president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud acknowledged defeat in a second round of voting by lawmakers.

"This is the beginning of unity for the Somali nation, the beginning of the fight against Shabaab and corruption", a triumphant Farmajo said after being declared the winner in a long, drawn-out election process in the conflict-wracked nation.

Civilians took to the streets and soldiers fired celebratory gunfire in the capital Mogadishu which had been near-deserted for two days with roads and schools closed and residents urged to stay indoors for fear of a strike on the capital by Shabaab militants.

And Somali refugees in Dadaab, the world's biggest refugee camp in eastern Kenya, also erupted with joy and sang the national anthem when hearing Farmajo had won, according to an AFP correspondent.

"Time has come for us Somalis. I thank God. This is the man we need, he cares for us, he cares for the poor men and women," said 60-year-old Anfi Kassim who has lived in the camp since 1992.

The United States said it regretted the numerous reports of electoral fraud, but urged Farmajo to use his new mandate to "deliver good governance" to the needy Horn of Africa state.

After six hours and two rounds of voting, a crowded field of 21 presidential candidates was whittled down to the two veteran politicians.

Farmajo failed to win the required two-thirds majority, but had 184 votes to Mohamud's 97, prompting the incumbent to drop out to avoid a third round.

The father of four served as prime minister for only eight months between 2010 and 2011 and was ousted in a deal to form a new government and postpone elections that year.

However several of his moves, such as implementing regular payments of soldiers, were well received and many supporters took to the streets of Mogadishu to protest his removal.

Farmajo was born in the capital to a family from the southern Gedo region, and moved to the United States where he studied history and political science at the University of Buffalo.

He went on to work in the foreign ministry and as a diplomat in Washington before the collapse of Siad Barre's military regime in 1991 which led to civil war and decades of anarchy in Somalia.

Farmajo also ran for president in 2012, in the first election inside the country since 1991. In that election only 135 clan elders picked the lawmakers who went on to elect the president.

In 2016 Somalia had been promised a one-person, one-vote election. However political infighting and insecurity saw the plan ditched for a limited vote running six months behind schedule.

Although the election is billed as its most democratic in nearly five decades, only 14,000 delegates were able to vote for the lawmakers who went on to elect the president.

The long, drawn-out election has largely consisted of horsetrading between different clans, with widespread allegations of vote-buying and corruption, leaving it a distant process to the average Somali.

The internationally-backed government still has limited control over a country where swathes of countryside are controlled by Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab militants who regularly launch deadly strikes against Mogadishu.

If Farmajo is serious about cracking down on corruption, he has his work cut out for him in a country listed as the most corrupt in the world by Transparency International.

Mogadishu-based anti-corruption NGO Marqaati in a report released this week described rampant vote-buying, and alleged that civil servants had gone unpaid for seven months and public lands sold off to fund lobbying for MP positions.

"When delegates refused to take money and vote a certain way, they would be replaced, intimidated, harassed and, in some incidences... shot," read the report.

The report said some delegates were paid up to $30,000 each to vote for MPs, while presidential candidates seeking to sway MP votes were reported to have to fork out $50,000 to $100,000 per lawmaker.

"The electoral process has been subject to serious allegations of fraud and corruption, some of them clearly substantiated," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The US State Department said that it regretted "numerous credible reports of irregularities in the electoral process", but that it would work with Farmajo "to advance reconciliation, drought relief, security, and build the strong institutions to deliver good governance and development for the Somali people." Francisco Caetano Madeira, chair of the African Union Mission for Somalia, which has been helping the country to combat the Shabaab, also urged the new administration "to use the next four years in office to enhance reconciliation and unity".</s>With Travel Ban On Hold, Somali Refugees Take Off For The U.S.

For the first time since President Trump's travel ban went into place, Somali refugees are leaving Kenya for the United States. A court has put the ban on hold.</s>(CNN) The Kenyan government says it will appeal a court ruling Thursday thwarting its plan to close the Dadaab refugee camp, the largest in the world.

In a statement posted on Twitter, it said that it has "the cardinal responsibility of providing security for all Kenyans" and claimed the complex in eastern Kenya, which is the size of a large town, has become "a launchpad for various terrorist attacks by Al-Shabaab."

Government will appeal closure of Dadaab in interest of National Security. pic.twitter.com/KL5Z4ukYiw

Earlier in the day, Judge John Mativo said in a ruling that closure of Dadaab violates the country's constitution.

The government's closure and repatriation plans are "arbitrary, discriminatory and undignifying and hence a violation of Articles 27 and 28 of the constitution and consequently the same is null and void," Judge Mativo declared.

The government has long held the view that Dadaab has been used as a base by the al-Shabaab terror group

The camp began to grow with the outbreak of instability and violence in Somalia in the early 1990s and is currently home to approximately 260,000 people.

Ahmed, 24, a refugee who was born in Dadaab, told CNN over the phone that the court's ruling this morning came as a relief.

"Ever since the government of Kenya said that the camp should close in six months we were just fearing that the government would say the six months is ended and each and every one should go. That was all we have been worrying about."

"After months of anxiety because of the camp closure deadline hanging over their heads, increasingly restricted asylum options and the recent US administration suspension of refugee resettlement, the court's judgement offers Somali refugees a hope that they may still have a choice other than returning to insecure and drought-ridden Somalia," said Laetitia Bader, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, in a statement.

Somalia was one of the country's included in US President Donald Trump's executive order to bar citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days. The ban also prevents entry for all refugees for 120 days.

Twenty-six thousand refugees in Kenya, most of them from Somalia, were affected by that ban, Yvonne Ndege, the spokeswoman in Kenya for the United Nations refugee agency, told CNN.

Farmajo was declared victorious after incumbent President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud dropped out of the contest following the second round of voting.

The 328 members of Parliament met at an air force hangar in Mogadishu to cast their votes because of fears of a terrorist attack.

With the doors to the US appearing to close, many Dadaab residents now wanted to go back to Somalia, according to Abdi Maalim, a freelance Kenyan-Somali journalist.

"Even the longest-staying refugees in the camp now have some hope in their country because of the new president who is very much seen as the people's president," he said.

Maalim said those keen to return were largely from the cities, which have so far not been affected by a terrible drought that has gripped large swathes of Somalia.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization says up to three million people face hunger and even starvation because of poor rains that have wiped out crops and livestock.

"We are no longer talking about a drought crisis in Somalia, or even a severe drought crisis," FAO's Somalia Representative Dick Trenchard told CNN.

"We are talking about preventing famine in several areas of the country in the second half of the year, particularly in Bay in the south and Puntland in the north. Every Somali knows how bad the situation is and the potential catastrophe that lies ahead unless there is a massive and immediate increase in support and humanitarian assistance."

The high court ruling came in response to a petition not to shut Dadaab by two Kenyan human rights organizations, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and Kituo Cha Sheria.

The camp was initially due to be closed on 30 November 2016, but the government announced a six-month delay on "humanitarian grounds."

Occupying about 50 square kilometers in Kenya's Garissa County, Dadaab has four sub-camps of Hagadera, Ifo, Dagahaley and Kambios, making it the largest refugee camp in the world by population.

The camps were initially designed to host just 160,000 people, yet the population rose dramatically between 2010 and 2013, mostly due to famine.

A spokesman for Kenya's Interior Ministry said the court's judgment did not impact an ongoing "voluntary" repatriation program that has already seen 46,000 Somali refugees return home over the past six weeks.</s>Part of the eastern sector of the IFO-2 camp in the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp. By Tony Karumba (AFP/File)

Nairobi (AFP) - Kenya's High Court on Thursday blocked the government's decision to close the Dadaab refugee camp -- the world's largest -- and to send Somali refugees home.

Judge John Mativo ruled that the plan to shut down the camp was unconstitutional and amounted to persecution of refugees.

Dadaab is home to some 256,000 people, the vast majority of them Somalis who fled across the border following the outbreak of civil war in 1991.

The government has taken a hardline stance on the sprawling camp, saying it acts as a terrorist training ground for Shabaab Islamists, and repeatedly stating its intention to deport all Somali refugees.

But Mativo ruled that "the government decision specifically targetting Somali refugees is an act of group persecution, illegal, discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional".

The shutdown was ordered without proper consultation of people affected by the decision, in violation of the constitutional right to fair legal proceedings, he said in his ruling.

"Hence the said decision is null and void," he said, adding that sending refugees home would be in breach of Kenya's obligations under international law.

The ruling also blocks the government's decision to disband the Department for Refugee Affairs.

The government can appeal the court ruling, which comes after the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and rights group Kituo Cha Sheria filed a case challenging the legality of the shutdown.

"Today is a historic day for more than a quarter of a million refugees who were at risk of being forcefully returned to Somalia, where they would have been at serious risk of human rights abuses," Wanyeki said.

"This ruling reaffirms Kenya's constitutional and international legal obligation to protect people who seek safety from harm and persecution."

The government caught refugees, aid groups, the United Nations and Kenya's Western partners offguard last May when it announced plans to shut down the huge camp near the border, citing security concerns.

Since sending troops into neighbouring Somalia in 2011, Kenya has come under repeated attack from Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab militants.

The government has presented Dadaab as a security risk, saying Somali Islamists inside the camp planned the Shabaab attacks at Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall in 2013 and the Garissa university attack in 2015, though it has not provided evidence.

Authorities initially planned to close Dadaab at the end of November, but delayed the shutdown until May 2017 at the request of the UN refugee agency and against a backdrop of growing accusations of forced refugee returns to Somalia.

In September, Human Rights Watch warned in a report that the repatriation of Somalis from the camp violated international standards and that refugees were returning home involuntarily only to face persecution and hunger. The Kenyan government dismissed the report.</s>NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A Kenyan court ruled Thursday that the government must not close the world’s largest refugee camp and send more than 200,000 people back to war-torn Somalia, a decision that eases pressure on Somalis who feared the camp would close by the end of May.

Kenya’s internal security minister abused his power by ordering the closure of Dadaab camp, Judge John Mativo said, adding that the minister and other officials had “acted in excess and in abuse of their power, in violation of the rule of law and in contravention of their oaths of office.”

Rights groups Amnesty International, Kituo cha Sheria and the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights had challenged the government’s order to close the camp.

Kenya’s government quickly said it will appeal the ruling.

The judge called the order discriminatory, saying it goes against the Kenyan constitution as well as international treaties that protect refugees against being returned to a conflict zone.

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government has not proved Somalia is safe for the refugees to return, the judge said, also calling the orders to shut down the government’s refugee department “null and void.”

Somalia remains under threat of attacks from homegrown extremist group al-Shabab. Some Kenyan officials have argued that the sprawling refugee camp near the border with Somalia has been used as a recruiting ground for al-Shabab and a base for launching attacks inside Kenya. But Kenyan officials have not provided conclusive proof of that.

President Donald Trump’s temporary ban on travel from seven majority Muslim countries, including Somalia, had put added pressure on the Dadaab refugees. Last weekend, about 140 of the Somali refugees who had been on the brink of resettling in the United States were sent back to Dadaab instead.

Said Abuka, a community leader in Nairobi and a refugee for 22 years, said the court ruling would help the Somali refugees. Newborn babies could not be registered as refugees because of the shutdown of Kenya’s refugee department, he said.

“After months of anxiety because of the camp closure deadline hanging over their heads, increasingly restricted asylum options and the recent U.S. administration suspension of refugee resettlement, the court’s judgment offers Somali refugees a hope that they may still have a choice other than returning to insecure and drought-ridden Somalia,” said Laetitia Bader, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Al-Shabab has carried out several attacks on Kenya, which sent troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight the militants. The attacks include the September 2013 attack on Westgate mall that killed 67 people and the 2015 attack on Garissa University that killed 148 people, mostly students.

Associated Press writer Justin Lynch and videographer Idi Juma in Nairobi contributed.</s>NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A Kenyan court ruled Thursday that the government must not close the world’s largest refugee camp and send more than 200,000 people back to war-torn Somalia.

Kenya’s internal security minister had abused his power by ordering the closure by May of Dadaab refugee camp, in eastern Kenya, Judge John Mativo said.

The minister and other officials had “acted in excess and in abuse of their power, in violation of the rule of law and in contravention of their oaths of office,” Mativo said.

The judge said the decision to close the refugee camp is discriminatory and goes against the Kenyan constitution as well as international treaties that protect refugees against being returned to a conflict zone.

“The government’s decision specifically targeting Somali refugees is act of group persecution, illegal discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional,” he said.

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government has also not proved Somalia is safe for the refugees to return, Mativo said.

Kenya has said the closure of Dadaab is necessary because the sprawling camp is a recruitment ground for al-Shabab, Somalia’s Islamic extremist rebels, and a base for the group to launch attacks on Kenya.

Al-Shabab has carried out several attacks on Kenya, which sent troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight the militants who are waging an insurgency against Somalia’s weak western-backed government. Al-Shabab’s attacks on Kenyan targets include the September 21, 2013 attack on Westgate mall that killed 67 people and last year’s attack on Garissa University that killed 148 people, mostly students.

But Kenyan officials have not provided conclusive proof that Dadaab camp is a staging ground for extremist attacks. Some Kenyan officials have said the Westgate attackers came from Dadaab but investigators later said they came from a different refugee camp, Kakuma, which is mostly populated by South Sudanese refugees in northern Kenya.</s>Kenya’s High Court on Thursday overturned a government order to close the world’s biggest refugee camp, home to more than 300,000 Somali refugees, including some who have lived there more than 20 years.

The Kenyan government announced in 2015 it would close the Dadaab refugee camp, sending many people back to Somalia, arguing the camp was "an existential security threat to Kenya,” and a “nursery for Al Shabab,” the Al Qaeda linked Somali extremist group.

The court ruling keeps the camp open and brings more certainty for refugees afraid of being repatriated to Somalia, where large parts of the south are controlled by the Shabab and a famine is looming.

Human rights groups Amnesty International, Kituo Cha Sheria and the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights launched the court challenge against the closure.

In a toughly worded judgment, Judge John Mativo ruled Thursday that the Interior Minister and other officials had exceeded their powers and violated the law in their decision to close the camp, which he found would amount to group persecution of Somali refugees. He also found that the move would flout Kenya’s international treaty obligations on refugees.

"The government's decision specifically targeting Somali refugees is an act of group persecution, illegal, discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional,” Mativo said.

The judge also ruled out the the repatriation of refugees to Somalia, since Kenya had not shown it was safe for refugees to return.

In Somalia, the Shabab has recently beheaded people it accused of collaborating with Ethiopian forces. It has killed those who cooperated with the Somali army or allied United Nations-backed African forces, the African Union Mission to Somalia. It has assassinated people working for the government and in rural areas has killed people who disobeyed its harsh rules, such as impoverished people who burned charcoal to survive.

The Shabab forcibly recruits youths to fight and levies heavy taxes in areas it controls, particularly on traders and transport operators.

Human rights groups welcomed the decision to overturn the closure, but the government said it would appeal the decision.

"For us as a government, Kenya will always come first. The lives of Kenyans matter. It is for this reason that we shall be strongly appealing the decision by the High Court,” government spokesman Eric Kiraithe told journalists Thursday in Nairobi.

Kenya has seen many gruesome terrorist attacks by the Shabab, including the 2013 Westgate shopping mall attack in the capital, Nairobi, which killed at least 67, and the 2015 attack on a university in the northern town of Garissa, which killed at least 147.

The government claims both attacks were planned by terrorists living in the Dadaab camp.

In Kenya, the Shabab often spares Muslims in attacks, although its victims in Somali attacks are often Muslim civilians.

The Kenyan government frequently targets ethnic Somalis in security raids, particularly in the Somali neighborhood of Eastleigh, near Nairobi. In 2014, Kenya rounded up more than 1,000 Somalis, including women and children, detained them in a football stadium and deported those without documents.

Dadaab, a series of sprawling settlements as big as a town, sprang up after Somalia descended into war and famine in the early 1990s after the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre fell in 1991. Some Somalis have lived in Dadaab for more than two decades, and many were born there.

The camp is situated in a harsh location in remote northern Kenya, with temperatures as high as 118 degrees in the dry season and floods in the wet season.

Somalis have continued to flee to Kenya since 1991 as stability has eluded their country, ravaged by famines, droughts, clan warfare and the Shabab. The last big influx of refugees was in 2011, when a famine drove thousands from their homes and some 260,000 people died.

Another famine is looming in Somalia, U.N. agencies have warned, threatening another massive exodus.

Half a world away in U.S. federal court, a three-judge panel is expected to decide whether to strike down or uphold a lower-court ruling suspending the enforcement of a Trump administration travel ban. Somalia is among seven Muslim-majority countries affected by the ban.

The ban caused anxiety among Somalis in Dadaab who had been granted entry to the U.S. Dozens of people who were waiting in Nairobi for a flight to the U.S. were sent back the Dadaab camp, according to the Associated Press, although legal barriers to their entry have since been cleared for now.

European Union plans to cut migrant influx by working with largely lawless Libya</s>Kenya's high court has said it would be unconstitutional to close the world's biggest refugee camp, which houses more than 200,000 people who have fled war in neighbouring Somalia.

In a ruling on Thursday, the court said a government order to shut the camp, which would have sent the refugees back to Somalia from the sprawling Dadaab camp, was illegal.

Judge John Mativo, who issued the ruling, said Kenya's internal security minister had abused his power by ordering the closure of the camp, which borders Somalia, in May last year.

According to Mativo, the order had been given without consulting the people who would be directly affected by its implications, which was a violation of Kenya's constitutional right to fair legal proceedings.

"Hence, the said decision is null and void," he ruled.

READ MORE: 'Forty percent of Somalis don't have enough food to eat'

Mativo also said that the order was discriminatory in nature and went against international treaties that protect refugees from being forced to return to persecution, adding that the Kenyan government had failed to prove Somalia was safe enough for the refugees.

Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director Michelle Kagari, said a durable solution should be explored for Somali refugees.

"This would include for example, exploring options for Somalis to be integrated into local communities, it would also include exploring options to increase resettlement opportunities for Somali refugees," she said.

The ruling also blocked a government decision to disband the Department for Refugee Affairs.

Amnesty International's East Africa chief, Muthoni Wanyeki, hailed the ruling as "historic".



He said: "Today is a historic day for more than a quarter of a million refugees who were at risk of being forcefully returned to Somalia, where they would have been at serious risk of human rights abuses."

"This ruling reaffirms Kenya's constitutional and international legal obligation to protect people who seek safety from harm and persecution."

The government had been planning to shut down Dadaab for more than six months. In June, Somalia's ambassador to the US criticised the plan and said it would damage relations between Kenya and Somalia.

The government had denied that it would be abandoning refugees, saying it had made arrangements with the Somali government to resettle them.

In November, the closure was delayed by six months after calls by foreign nations to postpone it on humanitarian grounds.

Kenya says Dadaab has become a hive for the al-Shabab armed group, and that it is a drain on the economy.

Some refugees have voluntarily returned to Somalia in recent months, after pressure to close down the camp spread fear of being forcibly evicted among the residents of Dadaab.
A high court in Kenya blocks a government bid to close the Dadaab refugee camp and repatriate over 260,000 Somali refugees back to Somalia. The government said it will appeal against the ruling.