17/3/2006
Funding Shortfall Forces WFP To Cut Refugees Rations

Insufficient funding has forced the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to reduce rations to 230,000 Somali and Sudanese refugees in north-east Kenya, even as it struggles to fill a $170-million shortfall in its operations to feed 3.5 million Kenyans affected by severe drought.

“Our lack of funding has given us little choice. Starting this week, the refugees will be receiving a food ration equivalent to 1,750 kilocalories per day, that’s a 20 per cent decrease in their daily intake,” WFP Kenya Country Director Tesema Negash said today. “This cut will enable us to extend the limited food currently available over the next few months.”

Without fresh pledges, WFP will run out of pulses this month, cereals and vegetable oil in May, and corn soya blend in June. WFP Kenya requires $5 million to provide adequate rations for refugees between now and July and an additional $14 million until the end of the year.

“Given the escalation in needs across much of the Horn of Africa due to regional drought, donors are already stretched. If these ration cuts for refugees continue, we may see not only increasing insecurity within and around the camps as people clash over limited resources, but also rising malnutrition rates - which are already unacceptably high,” Mr. Negash warned.

Last week, WFP said the death toll among 3.5 million Kenyans in need of emergency assistance could rise in the coming months unless donations to head off a disaster arrived soon. That operation is 75 per cent under-funded.