Can one of Africa's largest refugee camps evolve into a city?

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Can one of Africa's largest refugee camps evolve into a city?

2025-04-07 13:38 Last Updated At：13:41

KAKUMA, Kenya (AP) — Windswept and remote, set in the cattle-rustling lands of Kenya’s northwest, Kakuma was never meant to be permanently settled.

It became one of Africa’s most famous refugee camps by accident as people escaping calamity in countries like South Sudan, Ethiopia and Congo poured in.

More than three decades after its first tents appeared in 1992, Kakuma houses 300,000 refugees. Many rely on aid to survive. Some recently clashed with police over shrinking food rations and support.

Now the Kenyan government and humanitarian agencies have come up with an ambitious plan for Kakuma to evolve into a city.

Although it remains under the United Nations' management, Kakuma has been redesignated a municipality, one that local government officials later will run.

It is part of broader goal in Kenya and elsewhere of incorporating refugees more closely into local populations and shifting from prolonged reliance on aid.

The refugees in Kakuma eventually will have to fend for themselves, living off their incomes rather than aid. The nearest city is eight hours' drive away.

Such self-reliance is not easy. Few refugees can become Kenyan citizens. A 2021 law recognizes their right to work in formal employment, but only a tiny minority are allowed to do so.

Forbidden from keeping livestock because of the arid surroundings and the inability to roam widely, and unable to farm due to the lack of adequate water, many refugees see running a business as their only option.

Startup businesses require capital, and interest rates on loans from banks in Kakuma are typically around 20%. Few refugees have the collateral and documentation needed to take out a loan.

Denying them access to credit is a tremendous waste of human capital, said Julienne Oyler, who runs Inkomoko, a charity providing financial training and low-cost loans to African businesses, primarily in displacement-affected communities.

“We find that refugee business owners actually have the characteristics that make world-class entrepreneurs,” she said.

“They are resilient. They are resourceful. They have access to networks. They have adaptability. In some ways, what refugees unfortunately have had to go through actually makes a really good business owner.”

Other options available include microloans from other aid groups or collective financing by refugee-run groups. However, the sums involved are usually insufficient for all but the smallest startups.

One of Inkomoko’s clients in Kakuma, Adele Mubalama, led seven young children — six of her own and an abandoned 12-year-old she found en route — on a hazardous journey to the camp through four countries after the family was forced to leave Congo in 2018.

At the camp it took six months to find her husband, who had fled two months earlier, and six more to figure out how to make a living.

“It was difficult to know how to survive,” Mubalama said. “We didn’t know how to get jobs and there were no business opportunities.”

After signing up for a tailoring course with a Danish charity, she found herself making fabric masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Able to borrow from Inkomoko at half the rate charged by banks, she expanded, taking on 26 employees and buying new sewing machines. Last year she made a profit of $8,300 — a huge amount when many refugees live on allowances or vouchers of about $10 or less a month.

Another beneficiary is Mesfin Getahun, a former soldier who fled Ethiopia for Kakuma in 2001 after helping students who had protested against the government. He has grown his “Jesus is Lord” shops, which sell everything from groceries to motorcycles, into Kakuma’s biggest retail chain. That's thanks in part to $115,000 in loans from Inkomoko.

Trading with other towns is also essential. Inkomoko has linked refugee businesses with suppliers in Eldoret, a city 300 miles (482 kilometers) to the south, to cut out expensive middlemen and help embed Kakuma into Kenya's economy.

Some question the vision of Kakuma becoming a thriving, self-reliant city.

Rahul Oka, an associate research professor with the University of Notre Dame said it lacks the resources — particularly water — and infrastructure to sustain a viable economy that can rely on local production.

“You cannot reconstruct an organic economy by socially engineering one,” said Oka, who has studied economic life at Kakuma for many years.

Two-way trade remains almost nonexistent. Suppliers send food and secondhand clothes to Kakuma, but trucks on the return journey are usually empty.

And the vast majority of refugees lack the freedom to move elsewhere in Kenya, where jobs are easier to find, said Freddie Carver of ODI Global, a London-based think tank.

Unless this is addressed, solutions offering greater opportunities to refugees cannot deliver meaningful transformation for most of them, he said.

“If you go back 20 years, a lot of refugee rights discourse was about legal protections, the right to work, the right to stay in a country permanently,” Carver said. “Now it’s all about livelihoods and self-sufficiency. The emphasis is so much on opportunities that it overshadows the question of rights. There needs to be a greater balance.”

For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Emotional return for Luka Doncic and Mavericks fans in his 1st game at Dallas since trade to Lakers

2025-04-10 12:17 Last Updated At：12:22

DALLAS (AP) — Luka Doncic always knew it was going to be an emotional return to Dallas when wearing his No. 77 Los Angeles Lakers jersey in the place he called home the first 5 1/2 seasons of his NBA career.

Then the Mavericks showed a more than two-minute video tribute before he had even been introduced before his first game back Wednesday night, two months after being traded.

Doncic watched while sitting on the bench alone, with tears in his eyes and wondering if he would even be able to get through the game.

“After that video, I was like, there’s no way I’m playing this game," Doncic said. “So many moments, and I just went out there and just played basketball."

More than play, he had another Luka-like standout performance.

Doncic matched his season high with 45 points in a 112-97 victory that clinched a playoff spot for the Lakers. He already had 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting with three 3s in the first 10 1/2 minutes.

“It was a beautiful moment. I thought the video was great,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “But I think just his ability to then go perform, lights turn on, he’s teary-eyed still as we walk out on the court for the tip ball. To have the emotional resolve to then go put on that kind of performance, it’s superhuman.”

The other four Lakers starters had already been introduced as Doncic looked up to watch many highlights from his time in Dallas — from being the 2018-19 NBA rookie of the year to last year's NBA Finals when he was the league scoring champion.

Doncic didn’t make it all the way through before putting his head down and wiping away tears. His eyes were still red once he was introduced and came on the court to be surrounded by his teammates and get several hugs.

The 26-year-old from Slovenia had thought he would spend his entire career in Dallas before that seismic trade out of nowhere the first weekend of February, a deal that brought Anthony Davis to Dallas.

“It was a little bit of both, happy and angry, but it’s nice to see some familiar faces here," Doncic said about arriving at the American Airlines Center before Wednesday's game. "It was a lot emotions. When I woke up, I was tired. Ain’t going to lie, I didn’t sleep much. Excited about this game. I really appreciate the fans, the way they reacted to me.”

There were loud cheers throughout the night, plus extended ovations when he was first introduced and then exited the game in the closing minutes. Draped over every seat in the arena was a T-shirt with “Hvala za vse” across the front — that Slovenian phrase translates to “Thank you for everything.”

Doncic called it an amazing and unbelievable experience, but one that he is happy to have done.

“Now I can get some sleep finally,” he said.

Right after tipoff, fans began chanting “Fire Nico" for the Mavericks general manager who traded Doncic. That chant got louder and longer in the first quarter, and repeated numerous times during the game, when Nico Harrison was seen standing just outside a tunnel.

Mavericks fans conducted a mock funeral outside the American Airlines Center on Feb. 2, right after news of the trade late the previous night. There have been protests and plenty of ire directed at Harrison, including “Fire Nico!” showing up on plenty of signs and T-shirts. The GM hasn't spoken to the media since comments he made right after the deal was done.

While there were no organized protests outside the arena before the game, No. 77 jerseys were everywhere — both the purple and gold ones of the Lakers and blue Mavericks jerseys as well, though some of those home ones had the Dallas logo covered up. There were even some Slovenia jerseys.

One fan sitting a couple of rows behind the Dallas bench had a Mavericks No. 77 jersey, but had “Lakers” written on duct tape covering up the logo. A fan outside wore a Los Angeles jersey with duct tape covering the Lakers logo that read “Former Mavs fan.”

This wasn’t the first time Doncic played the Mavericks. He had a triple-double (19 points, 15 rebounds and 12 assists) in the Lakers’ 107-99 home win on Feb. 25, only 23 days after the trade.

Los Angeles is 21-12 since Doncic was acquired. The Lakers are 17-9 in the games he has played for them.

Dallas is 12-19 since the trade and Davis has played in only eight of those games (five wins). The 10-time All-Star missed six weeks after his dominant debut with the Mavs on Feb. 8, when he had 26 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists and three blocks against Houston before coming up lame in the third quarter because of a groin injury.

“With A.D., we got traded for each other, so from now on, everybody’s going to compare us two,” Doncic said. "I think he’s an amazing player and I think is going to do really good in Dallas.”

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