Cuts in food rations for 1.5 million refugees in east Africa,
due to funding shortages, could increase school dropouts, crime and
malnutrition, a United Nations official said on Wednesday.
With
humanitarian needs soaring around the world, donors are prioritising
crises in Syria, Yemen and Bangladesh, said Peter Smerdon, the World
Food Programme (WFP)’s east Africa spokesman.
Rations
As
a result, refugees in Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda fleeing
drought and conflict have had maize, beans and vegetable oil rations cut
by almost a third over the last seven months, he said.
“In
my 15 years at WFP, I have never seen this number of refugees, at this
time of year, having cuts to their food rations,” he said.
“Needs
have gone through the roof for the whole of the humanitarian system,
and donors really can’t keep up with these increased needs. And the
longer they continue, the more likely people will fall through the
cracks.”
Biggest refugee crisis
The
four east African nations provide sanctuary for millions fleeing drought
in the Horn of Africa and protracted conflict in Somalia and South
Sudan - the world’s youngest nation - where civil war has created the
continent’s biggest refugee crisis.
WFP has only
received about one-fifth of almost $360 million required to support
refugees in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania in 2018, Smerdon said.
He warned that WFP would have to further reduce rations if funding did not come through.
“If
you a cut a refugee family’s rations, they will take their kids out of
school to save money on costs such as uniforms and books, and send them
out to either find food or work,” he said.
"In a
refugee camp, crime is likely to go up as people are likely to go into
debt as people are already pretty poor. Over the longer term, child
malnutrition will go up."
— By Thomson Reuters Foundation
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