Dagahaley refugee camp, Dadaab, Kenya

Dagahaley is one of the camps of the Dadaab complex in Garissa County, Kenya (UNHCR Operational Data Portal, Dagahaley). Human Rights Watch put the return journey from Dagahaley at 20 km to Ifo and 56 km to Hagadera (HRW, 2009). The complex as a whole is on Dadaab and Kenya's Somali refugee camps.

When did Dagahaley open?

UNHCR's 2015 profile says Dagahaley was set up in March 1992 (UNHCR Dagahaley camp profile, August 2015). A 2003 profile of the Somali Bantu says UNHCR opened Ifo first, then Dagahaley, then Hagadera, after the Liboi reception camp grew past 40,000 (Van Lehman and Eno, 2003).

One of that profile's authors, Daniel Van Lehman, was a UNHCR field officer in Dagahaley from 1992 to 1994 (Van Lehman and Eno, 2003). By January 1994, by the profile's estimate, about 10,000 Somali Bantu lived in the Dagahaley, Ifo, Liboi and Hagadera camps (same source).

For 14 years the camp held about 30,000 people, UNHCR says (UNHCR, August 2015). New refugees came in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2011, and settled on the camp's outskirts (UNHCR Dagahaley profile, 2014).

How many people have lived in Dagahaley?

Counts from UNHCR and from Human Rights Watch, which quoted UNHCR figures:

• 28 February 2009: 77,036 (Human Rights Watch, From Horror to Hopelessness, March 2009).
• December 2012: 119,233, the highest figure in UNHCR's online series (UNHCR ODP, Dagahaley).
• 28 February 2014: 91,947, in 22,247 households (UNHCR, 2014).
• 1 August 2015: 87,170, of whom 83,155 came from Somalia and 3,845 from Ethiopia (UNHCR, August 2015).
• July to August 2016: the portal's figure fell from 83,020 to 67,634 (UNHCR ODP, Dagahaley).
• September 2018: 67,170, the lowest figure in the series (same source).
• December 2020: 74,506; December 2023: 84,594; December 2024: 104,051; December 2025: 102,048 (same source).
• 31 October 2026: 109,154 people in 20,698 households (same source).

A biometric check that began in October 2013 cut the number of people collecting food from 105,156 to 92,439, UNHCR reported (UNHCR, 2014).

Who lives in Dagahaley now?

On 31 October 2026, 106,257 of Dagahaley's residents came from Somalia and 2,688 from Ethiopia (UNHCR ODP, Dagahaley). Others came from South Sudan (166), Burundi (16), DR Congo (15) and Sudan (3) (same source).

Children under 18 made up 58,626 people, or 53.7% of the camp, and 16,386 were under five (UNHCR ODP, Dagahaley, demographic breakdown).

What happened on the outskirts in 2008 to 2011?

On 31 May 2008, Ifo and Hagadera were declared full and new arrivals were registered only in Dagahaley (Human Rights Watch, 2009). On 28 August 2008 Dagahaley was also declared full (same source). Human Rights Watch found hundreds of new arrivals camped behind UNHCR's compound in Dagahaley (same source).

In January 2011 MSF said thousands of new refugees were living in poor conditions on Dagahaley's outskirts (MSF, 20 January 2011). In 2011 most of them moved to the new Ifo 2 camp (UNHCR, August 2015). About 1,000 households were still on the outskirts in 2015 (same source).

From 31 July to 10 August 2011, MSF surveyed Bulo Bacte, a self-settled area around Dagahaley (Polonsky et al., Conflict and Health, 2013). Its findings:

• Population: 26,583 people, 24.4% of them under five (same source).
• Deaths: 360 in the 177 days before the survey, 186 of them children under five (same source).
• Death rate: 0.8 per 10,000 people a day, and 1.8 for children under five (same source).
• Measles: an outbreak from June to October 2011 caused a reported 17% of deaths (same source).
• Malnutrition: 13.4% global acute malnutrition and 3.0% severe acute malnutrition among young children (same source).

What health care does Dagahaley have?

MSF began work in Dagahaley in March 2009 (MSF, 20 January 2011). In 2011 it ran a 110-bed hospital with surgery and maternity care, and four health centres doing about 10,000 consultations a month (same source).

MSF has given later bed counts:

• May 2023: a 92-bed hospital and two health posts (MSF, 30 May 2023).
• 2025: a 90-bed hospital and three health posts (MSF Dagahaley factsheet, 2025).

MSF's 2025 figures for the project (same source):

• 183,567 consultations and 13,176 admissions.
• 3,861 deliveries and 1,102 surgeries.
• 1,378 children admitted for malnutrition.
• 58,860 measles vaccinations.

In May 2015, MSF moved 42 staff to Nairobi because of insecurity (UNHCR, August 2015). It closed two of its four health posts and suspended antenatal care at the hospital (same source).

What schools and water does Dagahaley have?

UNHCR's 2015 profile lists seven primary schools, two secondary schools and an adult literacy centre (UNHCR, August 2015). Primary enrolment was 33.9%, with one teacher for 53 pupils (same source). In secondary school, 79% of students were boys and 21% girls (same source).

Kenya's education ministry installed solar power in five primary schools, the profile says (same source). NRC ran a vocational training centre, and the camp had 96 youth groups (same source).

Water in 2015 came from seven boreholes in the camp, with two more outside it for the host community (UNHCR, August 2015). Six elevated steel tanks fed 7.63 km of pipes, and UNHCR described the borehole equipment as ageing (same source).

How is Dagahaley laid out?

Dagahaley covers 8.2 square km, in ten sections of about ten blocks each (UNHCR, August 2015). Plots measure 12 by 15 metres, but the profile reports three families sharing plots meant for one (same source).

What fires, outbreaks and floods has Dagahaley seen?

• November 2006: floods displaced more than 100,000 of Dadaab's 160,000 refugees, and Dagahaley and Ifo were the worst hit, AFP reported (AFP via Terra Daily, 21 November 2006).
• July 2012: a fire destroyed Dagahaley's central market. UNHCR blamed the unplanned way the market had grown (UNHCR, August 2015).
• 8 December 2014: the first assisted return convoy to Somalia, with 91 people, left Dagahaley (same source).
• 2022: MSF treated a record 12,007 patients in its paediatric ward and feeding centre, 33% more than in 2021 (MSF Kenya, 24 January 2023). Acute malnutrition among screened children reached 8% in December 2022 (same source).
• November 2022 to May 2023: MSF counted more than 1,120 cholera cases and two deaths in Dagahaley (MSF, 30 May 2023). MSF linked the outbreak to cuts in water and sanitation work (same source).
• January 2023: MSF opened two medical outposts and built 50 latrines for about 800 newly arrived families on the outskirts (MSF Kenya, 2023).
• November 2023: heavy rain from 8 November flooded the camp, and more than 2,700 people sheltered in five schools (MSF Kenya, 21 November 2023).

What has been written about Dagahaley?

• Polonsky and others, "High levels of mortality, malnutrition, and measles…", Conflict and Health (2013), on the Bulo Bacte survey of 2011 (DOI).
• Fred Nyongesa Ikanda, "The Role of Somali Kinship in Sustaining Bureaucratic Governance around Dagahaley Camp in Kenya", Ethnos (2020) (DOI).
• Human Rights Watch, From Horror to Hopelessness (2009), with interviews in Dagahaley in October 2008 (HRW).
• MSF factsheets and press releases (2011 to 2025) on the hospital and outbreaks (MSF Kenya).

Related pages

• Dadaab and Kenya's Somali refugee camps
• Ifo and Ifo 2 camps
• Hagadera camp
• Somali refugee camps
• Somali Bantu resettlement
• Kenya
• The famine of 2010 to 2012
• Somali refugees by the numbers

Sources

1. UNHCR. Operational Data Portal: Dagahaley Ref. Camp, monthly population 2012 to 2026 and demographics, 31 October 2026. https://data.unhcr.org/en/country/ken/180. Checked 12 November 2026.
2. UNHCR. Dagahaley Camp Profile, Dadaab, Kenya, 1 August 2015. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/32111. Checked 12 November 2026.
3. UNHCR. Camp profile Dagahaley, 28 February 2014. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/31861. Checked 12 November 2026.
4. Van Lehman, D. and Eno, O. The Somali Bantu: Their History and Culture. Center for Applied Linguistics, 2003. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED482784.pdf. Checked 12 November 2026.
5. Human Rights Watch. From Horror to Hopelessness: Kenya's Forgotten Somali Refugee Crisis, March 2009. https://www.hrw.org/reports/kenya0309web.pdf. Checked 12 November 2026.
6. MSF. Ifo II refugee camp in Kenya lies empty while tens of thousands of Somali refugees live in unacceptable conditions, 20 January 2011. https://www.msf.org/ifo-ii-refugee-camp-kenya-lies-empty-while-tens-thousands-somali-refugees-live-unacceptable. Checked 12 November 2026.
7. Polonsky, J. A. et al. High levels of mortality, malnutrition, and measles, among recently-displaced Somali refugees in Dagahaley camp, Dadaab refugee camp complex, Kenya, 2011. Conflict and Health 7:1, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-1505-7-1. Checked 12 November 2026.
8. MSF. Looming health catastrophe in Kenya's Dadaab refugee camps, 30 May 2023. https://www.msf.org/looming-health-catastrophe-kenya%E2%80%99s-dadaab-refugee-camps. Checked 12 November 2026.
9. MSF Kenya. Record admissions at MSF hospital in Dagahaley as humanitarian situation worsens, 24 January 2023. https://msf.or.ke/news-and-resources/latest-news/record-admissions-msf-hospital-dagahaley-humanitarian-situation. Checked 12 November 2026.
10. MSF Kenya. Kenya: flood-hit refugees in Dadaab in urgent need of aid, 21 November 2023. https://msf.or.ke/news-and-resources/news/kenya-flood-hit-refugees-dadaab-urgent-need-aid. Checked 12 November 2026.
11. MSF Kenya. Dagahaley camp: medical care for refugees and host communities, factsheet, 2025. https://www.msf.or.ke/sites/default/files/2026-05/Digital%20Dagahaley%20Factsheet%202025.pdf. Checked 12 November 2026.
12. AFP, via Terra Daily. Somali refugees trudge to higher ground in flood-hit Kenya, 21 November 2006. https://terradaily.com/somali-refugees-trudge-to-higher-ground-in-flood-hit-kenya-999/. Checked 12 November 2026.
13. Ikanda, F. N. The Role of Somali Kinship in Sustaining Bureaucratic Governance around Dagahaley Camp in Kenya. Ethnos, 11 June 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2020.1773894. Checked 12 November 2026.