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Refugees threatened by looming food shortages

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Western Sahara
Western Sahara refugees living in remote camps along the border with Algeria are threatened by a serious lack of food and if aid agencies do not get funds to offset current gaps by October, the refugees will not receive adequate daily food needs, two UN agencies reported on Thursday. "Some 155,000 Western Saharan refugees almost entirely dependent on humanitarian aid provided through the UN World Food Programme (WFP) are living in the four remote camps, and fresh contributions are urgently needed for their survival," WFP and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said. "Without a new infusion of funds by October the refugees will get only 11 per cent of their daily food aid requirements – about 231 kilocalories for each person – compared to the standard UN ration of flour, lentils, beans, vegetable oil and other items totaling 2,100 kilocalories daily," the agencies added. WFP said it needed 8,336 metric tons of food valued at US $3.7 million. UNHCR’s budget for the refugees had only received $1.5 million pledged so far out of the $4.6 million required. "With the lack of international attention to their plight, obtaining regular contributions of food aid for the Western Saharan refugees is extremely difficult," WFP’s Daly Belgasmi said in Geneva. Most affected would be children under five, pregnant women and lactating mothers, he said. "Thirty-five per cent of the children suffer chronic malnutrition, and 13 per cent of the children are acutely malnourished, leading to a high level of stunting among young children," UNHCR’s Radhouane Nouicer, who oversees operations in North Africa and the Middle East, said. Most of the refugees fled Western Sahara in 1975 after the colonial power Spain, pulled out and Morocco annexed it, prompting the armed Polisario Front to declare a war of independence. Polisario named the territory the Sahraoui Arab Democratic Republic. The UN has since 1991 been trying to broker a peace agreement between Morocco and the Polisario.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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