First batch of 90 Somali refugees return home

Kenya: The International Organisation of Migration (IOM), in partnership with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) early this week embarked on a voluntary repatriation of 94 Somali refugees living in Kenya.

The exercise, which started on Monday and ended yesterday was the first of voluntary return of Somali refugees, 23 years after conflict and famine drove them from their homeland.

Since the fall of the late Said Barre regime, Somali have never known peace. The repatriation process is the outcome of the tri-partite agreement signed between Kenya, Somalia and UNHCR in November 2013, that agreed on a dignified and humane repatriation for Somali refugees.