WFP warns over dwindling food stocks

The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned it will not have enough food stocks to meet the basic daily minimum requirements of vulnerable populations. These include refugees, returnees and the malnourished at supplementary feeding centres. In a report, WFP said that at the end of March stocks were enough to cover just over 17 percent of requirements, leaving a shortfall of 12,764 mt of food. “The absence of commodities such as pulses and blended foods in the food basket will have an immediate impact on the protein and micro-nutrient intake of targeted vulnerable groups,” the report warned. “Resources are currently so limited that only 50 percent rations are being distributed to victims of crop failure in southeast Rwanda.” WFP in Rwanda has been forced to use food stocks allocated to other projects to meet the urgent needs of drought-affected people in the southeast region suffering from three consecutive years of bad harvests, the report said. “This necessitated the suspension of new food for work activities and a scaling down of other projects critical for reactivating agricultural recovery and rehabilitation in the country.” The report pointed out that the lack of pledges from donors and the likely cessation of WFP support to food insecure households “may lead to an atrophy, or at the very least, a reversal of gains made in the rehabilitation process that is geared at re-establishing rural livelihoods”.