The World Food Program and the United Nations Human Rights Commission issued a joint appeal for $266 million on March 2, to reinstate full rations to over 3 million refugees in 11 countries of Eastern Africa. Save for Burundi and Sudan, the WFP has been forced to cut rations—sometimes as much as 60%—because of a lack of funds.
“We’ve never had such a terrible funding situation for refugees,” said Clementine Nkweta-Salami, UNHCR’s Regional Bureau Director Bureau for the East, Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes. “We have a $266 million shortfall for the next six months for refugees’ minimum needs. We are deeply concerned that if cuts continue, they will be faced with a very difficult decision: Stay in the camps where food and nutrition security is deteriorating, or consider risking going back when it is unsafe.”
