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Photo: REUTERS/James Akena
Portland, Ore - As chaos and violence continue to sweep Kenya, the Northwest-based global relief and development agency Mercy Corps is dispatching an emergency team to the country's conflict-wracked western region to meet with displaced families and assess critical needs.
The crisis has killed more than 800 people and driven at least 300,000 from their homes. Displaced survivors face food shortages, lack of clean drinking water and abysmal sanitary conditions in which infectious diseases can spread rapidly.
Western Kenya has been hardest hit, with thousands fleeing their homes, and many pouring across the border into Uganda. Insecurity and the disruption of transportation and markets have made the delivery of assistance difficult, placing thousands of displaced families at risk.
"In the last month, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced out of their homes and communities," said Randy Martin, Mercy Corps' director of global emergency operations. "The chaos and violence are most severe in western Kenya, where the insecurity has made it nearly impossible for people to access basic services like water, and challenged the ability of humanitarian organizations to deliver life-saving aid."
Mercy Corps has sent an emergency team to the western city of Eldoret, where overcrowded camps currently contain thousands of survivors. This team, made up of veteran responders and aid professionals, will help determine what needs are going unmet, especially in terms of water, sanitation and health.
The crisis arose from the controversial results of Kenya's December 27 presidential election, won by incumbent Mwai Kibaki amid allegations of voting irregularities and fraud. Deep tribal divisions marked the voting, and hostilities between ethnic groups set off waves of violence when the results were announced. There have been widespread atrocities throughout Kenya, including machete attacks and villages set aflame.
Mercy Corps currently has programs in four neighboring countries - Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia - and has regional headquarters in Kenya. The agency is well placed and experienced for this emergency response, having rushed emergency assistance to several war-torn areas of Africa in the past several months.
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