More than 6,000 flee Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp

More than 6,000 South Sudanese refugees have left one of Kenya's biggest refugee camps, the United Nations says, as aid cuts force increasing food shortages.

An official with the Department for Refugee Services (DRS) in Kakuma, who asked not to be named as he was not permitted to speak with the press, told AFP on Thursday many were returning to South Sudan. "They have nothing to eat," he said.

The Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya is the east African nation's second-largest and hosts roughly 300,000 people from South Sudan, Somalia, Uganda and Burundi.

"Since January, about 6,200 South Sudanese refugees have departed Kakuma and Kalobeyei," the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement emailed to AFP on Thursday.

Humanitarian groups are struggling, with violent protests breaking out last month due to reduced rations following massive cuts to aid from the United States and other donors.

Dangerous journeys

South Sudan has struggled with years of instability and is currently gripped by fears of renewed civil war due to heightened political tensions, driving refugees over the border.

Between July and August 22 alone roughly 3,600 people -- mainly women and children -- left the sprawling camp, it said, "accounting for over half of all exits this year".

"Actual numbers are likely higher, as many movements happen through informal crossings," it said.

It added that the departures came in the context of "some 4,800 new arrivals" since January.