Thousands of Somali refugees are streaming into Kenya to escape fighting in Somalia despite the closure of the border between Kenya and Somalia.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR said it is immediately positioning relief items in the region as well as trucks and emergency staff. The first batch of Somali refugees arrived at the Kenyan border town of Liboi on Friday as Kenyan military and police officers started patrolling a 1,500 km stretch of the border.

UNHCR said it is reinforcing its operational capacity in north- eastern Kenya and Ethiopia in response to the worsening humanitarian situation in Somalia , where thousands of people have been displaced by recent fighting between Ethiopian forces aligned with the Somali Transitional Federal Government and the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC).

Relief items, including plastic sheets and jerry cans for up to 50,000 people, are being sent from UNHCR regional warehouses and positioned along the Somali border. At the same time, the agency's fleet of vehicles is being expanded with the deployment of 10 extra trucks.

The agency said in a statement that beyond the immediate pre- positioning of relief items, UNHCR will also increase its existing stockpiles in the region by purchasing enough supplies for a further 100,000 people, both refugees and internally displaced persons IDPs.

Reports say two Kenya Air Force helicopters could be seen flying over the border area on Sunday as Kenya said it was not taking sides in the conflict.

Before the latest upsurge in fighting, more than 30,000 Somalis had already fled the conflict to north-east Kenya this year amid fears that the influx could climb to 80,000 by the end of 2006.

The region already shelters some 160,000 Somalis who had fled earlier fighting and droughts.

Source: Xinhua