After weeks of negotiations, the authorities in Kenya have agreed to move more than 5,000 Somali refugees away from the volatile border area, says the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).

The agency said it is organising a fleet of trucks and buses to take the refugees from the north-eastern town of Mandera to the Dadaab camp 500 kilometres away on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

More than 35 refugees, mostly children, have died of disease and malnutrition since mid-April, when they fled clan warfare in neighbouring Somalia, said UNHCR spokesman Emmanuel Nyabera.

Some were killed by stray gunfire from the Somali side.

Dangerous

Correspondents say the Kenyan authorities had been withholding permission to move the refugees because they did not want them to stay in Kenya permanently.

Most refugees say they are afraid to go back

The UNHCR had urged Kenya to move them, saying that Mandera was too dangerous for aid workers to work for fear of attack by Somali militiamen.

Kenyan police will escort the convoys to Dadaab across areas known for banditry.

Around 10,000 Somalis fled fighting around the town of Bulo Hawo in mid-April but many have since returned.

There are currently 213,000 refugees in Kenya, including 129,000 Somalis, says the French news agency, AFP.