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- THE WEEK, Page 27WORLDFear and Famine
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- Refugees from warring neighbors are pouring into Kenya for succor
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- In a time of drought and ceaseless civil wars, East Africa's
- refugee trails all seem to lead to Kenya. The fighting and
- dying along the country's borders have driven tens of thousands
- of starving civilians to a desperate march toward Kenya's
- reception centers and camps. New arrivals -- including skeletal
- children separated from their parents -- are crowding in at a
- rate that threatens to overwhelm both local and international
- relief organizations.
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- According to U.N. experts, almost 300,000 Somali,
- Ethiopians, Sudanese and Ugandans have already reached Kenya;
- that number could double in a few months. One of the worst
- droughts in modern African history has added to the fear and
- hunger that warfare began. More than half the refugees are
- Somali, fleeing westward from continuous battles among their
- country's clans and subclans. From the north trek thousands of
- starving Ethiopians, and from the northwest Sudanese are fleeing
- from Khartoum's national army and the southern rebel forces it
- is pushing before it.
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- This crisis is focused in Kenya, but U.N. officials say it
- should be dealt with on a regional basis. They hope for a plan
- that would allow relief missions and convoys to move freely
- across all the borders. To succeed, such a plan would need
- approval from each of the governments, and the starving
- thousands may not be able to wait for what would certainly be
- prolonged negotiations.
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