Det er sidste udvej, men FNs Fødevareprogram (WFP) ser ikke andre muligheder: En halv million flygtninge fra Somalia og Sydsudan i Kenya får fra lørdag skåret deres i forvejen sparsomme rationer ned til det halve – engang i januar ankommer et amerikansk skib med mere mad.
NAIROBI, 14 November 2014 (UN News Service): Starting Saturday, about half a million refugees, mainly from Somalia and South Sudan, living in the Dadaab and Kakuma camps in remote areas in northern Kenya will receive reduced rations from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) as a result of insufficient funding.
The 50 per cent ration cut comes as WFP struggles to raise 38 million US dollar (henved 228 mio. DKR) to cover its refugee operations for the next six months. This includes 15.5 million dollar that is urgently required to address food needs through January 2015.
“Cutting rations is the last resort and we are doing it to eke out the limited food we currently have available over the next ten weeks, as we continue to appeal to the international community to assist,” said Paul Turnbull, WFP Deputy Country Director for Kenya, Friday.
“WFP has done everything it can to avoid reducing rations, using all means at our disposal to cover critical funding gaps,” he added.
Each month, WFP distributes 9,700 metric tons of food for some 500,000 refugees in Kenya, at a cost of almost 10 million dollar (henved 60 mio. DKR).
Refugees are given a food ration of cereals, pulses (bælgfrugter), vegetable oil, a nutrient-rich maize-soya blend and salt, providing 2,100 kilocalories per person per day, the recommended emergency ration.
From mid-November, the refugees will receive a food ration equivalent to 1,050 kilocalories per day.
“WFP depends entirely on voluntary contributions from donors who generously support food assistance for refugees,” said Valerie Guarnieri, WFP’s Regional Director for East and Central Africa.
“With competing humanitarian needs around the world, we realize budgets are tight, but nonetheless, we must call for more funding so that we can work with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to meet the urgent needs of these vulnerable people, who have no other means of support,” Ms. Guarnieri said.
WFP expects to distribute half-rations until the end of January 2015, when a shipment of food assistance donated by the United States – sufficient for six weeks’ food requirements – is expected to arrive.
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