Contribution helps secure food pipeline to refugee camps

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) on Wednesday welcomed a US $12.5 million donation from the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO) which it said would enable it to continue feeding some 400,000 refugees in western Tanzania. "Thanks to this donation as well as to earlier contributions from the US, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, we have a full pipeline of non-cereals through October and of cereals through February next year," said Irene Lacy, WFP representative in Tanzania. The agency recently alerted donors to a severe funding shortfall and, over two months, had reduced rations of cereals and pulses by 25 percent among refugees in Kigoma and Kagera in order to avoid a complete halt in food distributions. "WFP's preparedness to respond to increased food needs is critical, especially in the overcrowded camps, where tensions rise with every new influx," a WFP statement said, adding that it is planned to resume full rations later this month.