RIYADH: Kenya’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia thanked the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) for its work in the east African country.
Peter Ogego called on KSRelief’s supervisor general, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, at the organization’s headquarters in Riyadh.
They discussed the center’s programs and areas for possible cooperation, such as helping Somali refugees in Dadaab and opening a KSRelief office in Kenya.
Dadaab, in Garissa County, is the site of a UNHCR base hosting 235,269 registered refugees and asylum seekers as at the end of January 2018. It comprises four camps.
The first camp was established in 1991, when refugees fleeing the civil war in Somalia started to cross the border into Kenya. A second influx occurred in 2011, when some 130,000 refugees arrived, fleeing drought and famine in southern Somalia.
Last summer KSRelief visited Dadaab to inspect factories that specialize in preparing and providing food aid to refugees.
In November the agency worked with the Kenyan Red Cross to distribute 13,000 food baskets for lactating and pregnant women, the elderly and patients with chronic diseases in the Dadaab area.
Ogego was also briefed about Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 reform plan and its focus on building the Kingdom’s humanitarian and volunteer program capacities.
He thanked KSRelief and expressed his appreciation for the Kingdom’s humanitarian assistance to Kenya, particularly the tons of dates distributed every year during the holy month of Ramadan.
