Drought in Somalia is forcing thousands of climate refugees to Kenya's Dadaab Refugee Camp

Climate pressures are forcing millions of people from their homes

Originally published on Global Voices

In the documentary Radio Dadaab, produced by the Environmental Justice Foundation(EJF), Fardowsa Sirat Gele remarked, “Back in 1991, during the civil war in Somalia, these people were fleeing from war. But this time, we are seeing more people fleeing Somalia because of drought.”

Sirat, a 25-year-old refugee journalist from Dadaab Camp, the world's largest refugee camp located in Kenya, near the Somalia border, provides insight into the challenges faced by refugees in the camp. The documentary, which was produced during EJF's visit to the camp, captures the experiences of several refugees and highlights how extreme weather events, exacerbated by climate change, are driving a significant increase in migration and displacement. The investigation also reveals the links between global heating and generations of climate migration. 

Dadaab Refugee Camp

Kenya's Dadaab Refugee Camp houses over 300,000 refugees, primarily from Somalia but also from other parts of Africa. While residents of the camp have access to basic necessities such as food, education, healthcare, commerce, and recreational activities, their movement is restricted to within 50 kilometres (about 31 miles) of the camp. Refugees are not allowed to establish permanent settlements, and individuals like Serat, who was born and raised in the camp, face profound identity challenges. The Kenyan government does not issue birth certificates to these individuals, and returning to their home countries to obtain documentation is not an option due to the prolonged war and conflict in Somalia that has been raging for decades.

Meanwhile, in 2022, the Kenyan government passed the Refugee Act 2021, which states that the refugee camps will be turned into integrated settlements, thus creating opportunities to integrate the refugees into the host community. The Act offers refugees freedom of movement, the right to work, and access to financial services, among other rights.

Consequences of the climate crisis

The number of people displaced within their own countries is increasing. Between 2013 and 2023, extreme weather events caused an annual average of 23.6 million people worldwide to be displaced within their own countries, with internal displacements reaching 32.6 million in 2022 alone. The report shares the impacts of these devastating weather events alongside stories of multi-generational climate refugees in their own words, many for the first time.

The consequences of global heating have been felt keenly in the Horn of Africa, where Somali refugees are finding themselves on the frontlines of the climate crisis, despite contributing almost nothing to the carbon emissions fuelling climate breakdown. In 2019, Somalia had a per capita carbon footprint barely one-fifth of the European Union’s and the entire continent of Africa only contributes around 3.8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, climate modelling reveals that as a conservative estimate, events like the drought that has unfolded in the Horn of Africa are 100 times more likely due to human-indicated climate change. 

The devastating consequences this has had on people’s lives is evidenced by the population living inside Dadaab Refugee Camp, which has been referred to as an “open-air prison,” EJF’s new report says. The camp was originally designed to accommodate 90,000 people, largely consisting of Somali refugees fleeing the 1991 civil war in Somalia.

However, according to the NGO’s report, the population has since increased to over three and a half times that size. Between 2022 and 2023, Dadaab experienced an influx of refugees due to droughts and conflict, which caused the camp’s population to swell from 234,000 in July 2022 to 320,000 in March 2023.

In 2024, severe flooding across East Africa displaced many Somali refugees, forcing them to endure similar hardships in Kenyan refugee camps. According to the EJF's latest report, the intensity of such crises is projected to escalate without urgent intervention and sustained support from the international community.

The EJF team visited the Dadaab Camp in September 2022, following the largest arrival of climate refugees in decades. As evidenced in the documentary, during this trip, the Dadaab residents told EJF how the drought had decimated their cattle and ruined their crops, forcing them to leave their homes and seek refuge. 

One single mother of seven, Halima Hassan Ibrahim, who lives with disabilities in Dadaab told the NGO: “We had ten cows and 50 goats. All of the cows and goats died and everything else was destroyed. I’m a mother and a father for my kids, and I don’t have anything for them.”

According to EJF, the situation has worsened significantly since then, with over 23.5 million people suffering from acute food insecurity in the region at the height of the drought in May 2023. 8.25 million people in Somalia — almost half of the country’s population — were in need of life-saving assistance, and 43,000 people died, with half the deaths among children under 5 years old.

Confronting this crisis together

To address the drought, Somalia’s Federal Government initiated a USD 420 million suite of World Bank-financed initiatives, including the Somalia Urban Resilience Project (Nagaad), through which emergency relief and cash assistance were provided to over 400,000 internally displaced persons arriving in already overstretched urban centers like Mogadishu, Baidoa, and Garowe.

Steve Trent, CEO and Founder of the Environmental Justice Foundation, noted in an email to Global Voices:

The significant loss of life, forced displacement and widespread suffering caused by the climate crisis, revealed by our investigation, is a choice. Every fossil fuel CEO prioritising profit over people, every world leader failing to deliver the urgent change we need, is actively picking this course. It’s time to chart another, and for the international community to act quickly and decisively. We call for the international legal framework for the protection of refugees to incorporate and protect climate refugees. We have no time to lose when it comes to global decarbonisation, mitigating global heating and upholding the basic human rights of those most impacted by the climate crisis.

Fardowsa Sirat Gele, a reporter for Radio Gargaar, concluded,

The injustice is stark: those who have contributed the least to global emissions are the first to lose everything. Ignoring this urgent call will not only widen the divide between rich and poor nations but will also fuel conflict, poverty, and instability worldwide. We owe it to the most vulnerable — and to future generations — to confront this crisis with bold action and compassion. A united global response is essential — not only to mitigate future harm but to uphold justice and compassion in the face of this urgent challenge. Let’s protect our most vulnerable and ensure a world where all can thrive.

Written by Zita Zage