Somalian refugees under attack

DADAAB (AP):

Marauding gangs and criminals are attacking Somali famine refugees more frequently as they flee across the border to Kenyan camps, but Kenyan police say they don't have enough manpower to stop them.

The lack of manpower underscores a larger problem for Kenya: Officials here say they are being overwhelmed by the influx of tens of thousands of Somali refugees, and cannot stem the attacks. One 30-year-old woman who watched two of her five children die as they trekked through Somalia was raped after reaching what she hoped would be the safety of Kenyan soil.

Run into trouble

"I constantly ask myself, 'Would this have happened to you, or would you have lost your children if you had been in your country?'" said the woman. "My mind always says: 'You ran away from a problem and ran into another.'"

Kenya now hosts nearly 500,000 Somali refugees, and while United States (US) and United Nations (UN) officials are quick to praise Kenya for their response to the famine crisis, Kenyan officials are just as quick to tell the US, UN and world leaders that they can't take many more.

President Mwai Kibaki told the US vice-president's wife, Jill Biden, during her visit to Kenya on Monday that the Somali refugee population was placing Kenya under extreme pressure and burdening its resources. Echoing local Kenyan officials who live close to the border, Kibaki advocated that refugee camps be set up inside Somalia near the Kenyan border, so Kenya does not have to accept the thousands more Somalis who arrive each week.