15/7/2005
WFP Appeals For $3 Million To Feed Refugees From Togo’s Violence

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) appealed this week for $3 million to ensure that 66,500 Togolese forced from their homes after President Gnassingbe Eyadema’s death and the subsequent disputed elections do not go hungry in the months ahead.

“The victims of Togo's turmoil are some of the least acknowledged in the world,” WFP Regional Director for West Africa Mustapha Darboe said. “Thus far we have been able to provide for their most immediate needs, but we now need to ensure we have the resources to continue to do so in the months ahead.

At least 100 people are known to have died in clashes around the April elections and many refugees remain too frightened to return home, WFP noted.

So far, the agency has managed to borrow from its other operations, but with food stocks now running low and no sign of the refugees returning home, aid is required to feed 21,000 Togolese in Benin and 17,000 in Ghana, as well as 10,000 seeking sanctuary within Togo itself. The remaining 18,500 are members of local communities which are hosting the displaced from Togo and therefore have less food for themselves.

Nearly 9,000 of those who have left their homes are housed in two refugee camps run by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Benin. Local communities in the three countries have taken in the rest.