Hagadera refugee camp, Dadaab, Kenya

Hagadera is the largest camp in the Dadaab complex in Garissa County, Kenya (UNHCR Hagadera camp profile, August 2015). It lies in Fafi constituency, while Ifo and Dagahaley lie in Lagdera (Human Rights Watch, March 2009). The Dadaab complex as a whole is on Dadaab and Kenya's Somali refugee camps.

When did Hagadera open?

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

UN News, citing UNHCR, dates the three original camps to October 1991 to June 1992, for up to 90,000 people in all (UN News, 21 February 2012). By January 1994, an estimated 10,000 Somali Bantu lived in the Dagahaley, Ifo, Liboi and Hagadera camps (Van Lehman and Eno, 2003).

In 2014 UNHCR managed Hagadera from its field office at Alinjugur (UNHCR Hagadera profile, 2014).

How many people have lived in Hagadera?

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

• 28 February 2009: 91,982 (Human Rights Watch, 2009).
• August 2012: 136,746 (UNHCR Operational Data Portal, Hagadera).
• November 2013: 111,490, after a verification exercise (same source).
• 28 February 2014: 107,666, in 28,107 households (UNHCR, 2014).
• 1 August 2015: 106,765, of whom 103,759 came from Somalia and 2,996 from Ethiopia (UNHCR, August 2015).
• July to August 2016: the portal's figure fell from 102,100 to 82,922 (UNHCR ODP, Hagadera).
• September 2018: 72,568, the lowest figure in the series (same source).
• December 2023: 86,550 (same source).
• January to March 2024: the figure rose from 93,599 to 126,219 (same source).
• November 2025: 146,693, the highest in the series (same source).
• 31 October 2026: 145,449 people in 27,737 households (same source).

UNHCR's profiles say the camp lost over 45,000 people from its count in one verification exercise (UNHCR, 2014). Over the same years, registered asylum seekers in Dadaab as a whole grew from 1,428 in UNHCR's 2022 figure to 138,309 in its 2024 figure (UNHCR Kenya statistics, October 2026).

Who lives in Hagadera now?

On 31 October 2026, 143,754 of Hagadera's residents came from Somalia and 1,611 from Ethiopia (UNHCR ODP, Hagadera). Small groups came from DR Congo (31), South Sudan (24), Burundi (20) and Uganda (7) (same source).

Children under 18 made up 81,409 people, or 56.0% of the camp, and 22,361 were under five (UNHCR ODP, Hagadera, demographic breakdown).

What is the "Hagadera Outskirts"?

UNHCR's profiles say most new arrivals in Hagadera stayed with relatives (UNHCR, August 2015). About 20,000 had settled outside the official camp area, in what UNHCR calls the "Hagadera Outskirts" (same source).

To ease crowding, relocations in 2011, 2012 and 2014 moved about 2,000 families, around 10,000 people, to Kambioos camp (UNHCR, August 2015). In 2008, residents of the host area near Hagadera had asked that 30,000 refugees be moved from Hagadera to a planned fourth camp, Human Rights Watch reported (HRW, 2009).

What is the Hagadera market?

UNHCR's profiles say Hagadera has "one of the biggest markets in the region and a dynamic economy" (UNHCR, 2014). In 2015 livelihood training covered tailoring, shoe making, soap making, weaving, sewing and tie-dye (UNHCR, August 2015).

What schools does Hagadera have?

In February 2014 Hagadera had six working primary schools, with a seventh due to open that year (UNHCR, 2014). By August 2015 it had seven primary schools, two secondary schools, an adult literacy centre, a vocational centre and an ICT training centre (UNHCR, August 2015).

Classrooms held 100 to 120 pupils, against a standard of 40, the profile says (same source). Primary enrolment was 37% and secondary enrolment 14.8% (same source).

What health care and water does Hagadera have?

In 2015 four clinics and one hospital served an average of 454 patients a day (UNHCR, August 2015). That was over 28,000 people per clinic, against a standard of one clinic per 10,000 (same source). The profile reports many home births, and notes several recent deaths from complications (same source).

A civil registrar from Garissa visited the camp each quarter to issue birth certificates to children born in Kenya (UNHCR, August 2015).

In December 2022 the International Rescue Committee said it was the only provider of medical care in Hagadera (IRC, 22 December 2022). It ran a 140-bed hospital and two health posts (same source).

Water in 2015, from the profile (UNHCR, August 2015):

• Boreholes: seven, giving 23 litres per person per day.
• Taps: an average of 132 people per tap, against a standard of 80.
• Latrines: about 13 people per latrine.
• Food: WFP rations, distributed by World Vision twice a month through a biometric check, for 2,100 kilocalories per person per day.

What fires, outbreaks and floods has Hagadera seen?

• November 2006: after floods hit Ifo and Dagahaley, UNHCR moved the most affected refugees from Ifo to Hagadera, AFP reported (AFP via Terra Daily, 21 November 2006).
• 31 May 2008: Ifo and Hagadera were declared full (HRW, 2009).
• From 2010: UNHCR recorded "rampant fire outbreaks" in the camp (UNHCR, 2014). No shelters were allocated to Hagadera between 2010 and 2014 (UNHCR, August 2015).
• September 2011: the first kidnapping of Dadaab aid workers took place in Hagadera (UNHCR, 2014). Roadside bombs later killed and injured police escorting UN and NGO vehicles (same source).
• April 2014: a UN vehicle was attacked and attackers tried to kidnap a UNHCR staff member (UNHCR, August 2015). The camp then had three police posts with 75 officers (same source).
• December 2022: a cholera outbreak in Hagadera killed at least three refugees, and 504 were treated for acute dehydration, the IRC reported (IRC, 2022).
• October to December 2023: floods affected nearly 25,000 people in the Dadaab camps and displaced about 2,700 households, a cash-aid baseline survey reported (Kenya Cash Consortium and IMPACT, February 2024). The survey sampled 90 households in Hagadera (same source).

How are Hagadera's residents represented?

Each block and section elects two leaders, one man and one woman (UNHCR, August 2015). In 2015 there were 28 section leaders and 260 block leaders, plus an elected chairman and chairlady (same source). The last election before that profile was held in August 2013, and minority groups also elected their own leaders (same source).

From December 2014, a joint desk run by Kenya's Department of Refugee Affairs, NRC and UNHCR registered people who wanted to return to Somalia (UNHCR, August 2015).

What has been written about Hagadera?

• UNHCR camp profiles (2014 and 2015) and the Operational Data Portal give the camp-level figures on this page (UNHCR ODP, Hagadera).
• Human Rights Watch, From Horror to Hopelessness (2009), includes interviews in Hagadera in October 2008 on registration and police conduct at the border (HRW).
• IRC press releases (2022) describe health and nutrition work in Hagadera during the drought arrivals (IRC, 8 November 2022).

Related pages

• Dadaab and Kenya's Somali refugee camps
• Ifo and Ifo 2 camps
• Dagahaley camp
• Somali refugee camps
• Somali Bantu resettlement
• Kenya
• The 2020 to 2023 drought
• Somali refugees by the numbers

Sources

1. UNHCR. Operational Data Portal: Hagadera Ref. Camp, monthly population 2012 to 2026 and demographics, 31 October 2026. https://data.unhcr.org/en/country/ken/181. Checked 12 November 2026.
2. UNHCR. Hagadera Camp Profile, Dadaab, Kenya, 1 August 2015. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/32114. Checked 12 November 2026.
3. UNHCR. Camp profile Hagadera, 28 February 2014. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/31862. Checked 12 November 2026.
4. UNHCR Kenya. Kenya Statistics Infographics, October 2026. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/124859. Checked 12 November 2026.
5. 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.
6. UN News. UN-run camps for Somalia refugees in Kenya enter 20th year of existence, 21 February 2012. https://news.un.org/en/node/404012. Checked 12 November 2026.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. International Rescue Committee. 55-fold increase in cholera cases and an outbreak of measles in Kenya's refugee camps strain health resources, 22 December 2022. https://www.rescue.org/eu/press-release/55-fold-increase-cholera-cases-and-outbreak-measles-kenyas-refugee-camps-strain. Checked 12 November 2026.
10. International Rescue Committee. Humanitarian needs mount as almost 60,000 refugees from Somalia arrive in Dadaab camp, 8 November 2022. https://www.rescue.org/eu/press-release/humanitarian-needs-mount-almost-60000-refugees-somalia-arrive-dadaab-camp-due-impact. Checked 12 November 2026.
11. Kenya Cash Consortium and IMPACT Initiatives. Multi-purpose cash response to flood-affected refugees in Dadaab: baseline factsheet, February 2024. https://repository.impact-initiatives.org/document/impact/81085faa/IMPACT_KEN_Dadaab-Baseline_Factsheet_Feb-2023.pdf. Checked 12 November 2026.