Anuak refugees following December 13, 2003 massacre in Gambella, Ethiopia Credit: Cultural Survival
Genocide Watch: Anuak in Gambella, Ethiopia and Kenyan and South Sudanese Refugee Camps
July 18, 2024
An ethnic conflict has erupted in two adjoining UNHCR refugee camps in northwestern Kenya, Kakuma Camp and Kalobeyei Camp. It began on June 20, 2024, when hundreds of members of a neighboring ethnic group, the Nuer, without provocation, attacked some of the Anuak in the camps, killing two Anuak and wounding 22. They were surprise attacks with machetes, pangas and knives in the middle of the night. Despite the efforts of camp leaders to bring the two groups together for peace talks on three occasions, Nuer thugs later attacked again as Anuak people slept.
Thousands of Anuak from the Gambella region of Ethiopia have lived in refugee camps since the Anuak genocide began on December 13, 2003, with an Ethiopian government-led massacre of 424 Anuak in Gambella city. The government has seized the Gambella region’s oil and agricultural resources and leased them to Chinese state corporations. The Nuer have also long coveted the Anuak land in Gambella, with attacks escalating over the past year.
The numbers killed and wounded are not yet large, but the attacks were unexpected, violent and gruesome. The attackers maimed their victims. Anuak trauma, shock, and fear, along with lack of security in the camps, led to a mass exodus of Anuak from both camps. Within a week, 4000 Anuak refugees took public buses to flee from both camps to Nairobi.
The Anuak sought temporary shelter in the Nairobi suburb of Ruiru, crowding into the one Anuak church and compound and in the homes of relatives living there. As numbers increased, most were without any shelter during this rainy season.
The Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières became involved, but the need for food, water, shelter and medical care was overwhelming. Anuak leaders met with officials from UNHCR, the Kenya Department of Refugee Services (DRS) and local authorities. Just a week after the refugees fled the Nuer attacks, Kenyan authorities forcibly sent them back to the Kenyan UNHCR camps, without agreement from the Anuak. Police surrounded the church, blocked roads, and beat many Anuak who resisted.
Anuak have arrived back at the camps to find their homes looted and damaged. They have no clean water, little food, no electricity, and the metal enclosures and seats of latrines are gone. While camp authorities have fully relocated each group, putting Anuak refugees in Kalobeyei Camp and Nuer refugees in Kakuma Camp, there is still potential for further ethnic violence. Added security has done little to stem fears of new attacks.
The most troubling aspect of these attacks is that they may be part of a larger Nuer plan to terrorize the Anuak out of the camps and the entire Gambella region of Ethiopia. A clandestine Nuer organization, the Naath Movement, allegedly has a plan to take over Anuak land in South Sudan and Gambella, Ethiopia. The Naath Movement’s goal is to establish an independent Naath Nation that would include Gambella, Ethiopia as well as Nuer areas in eastern South Sudan. Independence movements are proven early warnings of the genocides that governments use to crush such movements.
The deadly consequence of this alleged plan is that Nuer thugs may have begun to murder Anuak to terrorize them into leaving the camps and Gambella, Ethiopia. That constitutes forced displacement, a crime against humanity. If the killing reaches a larger scale, it could even become a plan to commit genocide. To achieve this, the plan evidently may now include targeting Anuak wherever Anuak live, including the Kakuma and Kalobeyei Refugee Camps in Kenya.
Genocide Watch considers this situation to be evidence of Stage 7: Preparation in the stages of genocide.
Genocide Watch recommends:
Kenyan Police must investigate the murders of two Anuak and wounding of 22 on June 22, 2024.
UNHCR should work with Kenyan authorities to secure 24/7 security in the Kalobeyei Refugee Camp.
UNHCR and Kenyan authorities should continue to seek peace between Nuer and Anuak.
Churches with Anuak and Nuer members should actively participate in peacemaking efforts.
The governments of Kenya, South Sudan, and Ethiopia should be alerted about the danger of ethnic conflict created by the Nuer Naath independence movement.