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| Africa Horn | |
| Kenya turns up the heat on Somali refugees | |
| 2014-06-05 | |
In late May, the Somali government pulled out of a meeting with UNHCR and the Kenyan government to formally launch a Tripartite Commission and discuss implementation of the Tripartite Agreement. The Agreement, signed in November 2013, outlines the procedures for the gradual and voluntary return of Somali refugees from Kenya, which is currently hosting around 423,000 Somalis holding refugee status. The scheduled 27 May meeting was to be first of the Tripartite Commission and was expected to produce agreements on a number of joint actions, including the launch of a pilot phase of a voluntary returns programme that has been on hold for several months. The cancellation of the meeting stalls the dialogue on voluntary returns to Somalia where internal security is currently challenged due to a joint military offensive against the al-Shabaab insurgency by the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) and the Somali National Armed Forces (SNAF) in south-central Somalia. Recent estimates point to around 73,000 people being displaced due to the military offensive, including to some of the areas identified for voluntary refugee returns as part of the pilot phase. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |