Africa

Rights group: Kenya forcing refugees to war-torn Somalia

Associated Press
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FILE - In this Friday, Aug. 5, 2011 file photo, newly arrived Somali refugees wait outside a UNHCR processing center at the Ifo refugee camp outside Dadaab, eastern Kenya, 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Somali border. The Kenyan government is coercing refugees to quit the world's largest refugee camp and return to Somalia where they risk getting killed or forcibly recruited into the Islamic extremist group, al-Shabab, Amnesty International said Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 20, 2012 file photo, parts of Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp, are seen from a helicopter in northern Kenya. The Kenyan government is coercing refugees to quit the world's largest refugee camp and return to Somalia where they risk getting killed or forcibly recruited into the Islamic extremist group, al-Shabab, Amnesty International said Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) (The Associated Press)

An international human rights group says the Kenyan government is coercing refugees to return to Somalia where they risk getting killed or wounded in an ongoing conflict, ahead of a deadline to close the world's largest refugee camp.

Some of the refugees have been living in Dadaab camp in eastern Kenya for more than two decades after Somalia descended into chaos following the 1991 ouster of longtime dictator Siad Barre by warlords who then turned on each other.

Kenya's government announced in May that Dadaab, which hosts more than 280,000 Somali refugees, will be closed at the end of this month, citing security concerns.

An Amnesty International report Tuesday said its researchers visited Dadaab in August, where they interviewed 56 refugees individually and held focus group discussions with 35 more.