Globe Trot: Kenyan officials demand UN close refugee camp for Somalis

KENYA: Officials are demanding the UN close Dadaab refugee camp, the world’s largest at 350,000 residents, in the wake of the Garissa University College attack last week. The camp is largely home to Somalis, and many say it’s sheltering al-Shabaab militants. “The way America changed after 9/11 is the way Kenya will change after Garissa. … We must secure this country at whatever cost,” said Deputy President William Ruto.

IRAQ: Emma Sky, a British diplomat who served as the top aide to Gen. Ray Odierno who commanded U.S. forces Iraq, claims in a new book that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton operated a “dysfunctional” diplomatic mission to Baghdad that allowed a lapse back to sectarian warfare leading to the country’s Islamic State meltdown. The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq, is significant for tracing Sky’s initial avid support for the Obama administration to her disenchantment: “If only Obama had paid attention to Iraq. … But his only interest in Iraq was in ending the war.”

(I wrote about the Alice in Wonderland embassy in Baghdad last year.)

SOUTH SUDAN: An April 18 deadline looms for warring factions in South Sudan to reach agreement, and military intervention may be the only way to stem one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with 6 million Sudanese currently in need of food.

CUBA: President Obama will remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, leaving Iran, Syria, and Sudan on the list.

NIGERIA: One year ago yesterday Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls from Chibok, and nearly all of them remain in captivity. Despite a spirited initial campaign by first lady Michelle Obama and others, the United States not only has provided little aid in the search for the girls but has twice denied a visa to one of the schoolgirls who escaped.