Food aid reduced for thousands of refugees

Refugees in Ethiopia have had their food relief slashed because of major shortages, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday. Rations for tens of thousands have been cut by up to one-third due to what UNHCR described as a refugee food crisis in East Africa and the Horn of Africa. "In Ethiopia, some 126,000 refugees - mainly from Somalia and Sudan - have already seen their food rations cut by 30 percent," said the UNHCR spokesman, Peter Kessler. "They now receive 1,500 kilocalories [kcal] per person per day, down from the standard 2,100 kcal requirement." He warned that food stocks would run out by May, after which about 300,000 refugees would have nothing to eat. In a statement released from Geneva, Kessler noted that the food cuts would adversely affect the health and nutrition of refugees – particularly women and children. "Food aid is required to meet all our refugees' dietary needs because most of the camps in the East and Horn of Africa are in remote, semiarid desert regions, and the refugees have little or no opportunity to farm, raise livestock, or otherwise provide for themselves," he stressed. "Many of the households are also headed by women, who simply have their hands full looking after themselves and their families." UNHCR said the countries mainly affected by the shortages were Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and that some US $48.3 million was needed to feed about 600,000 refugees in these countries until the end of the year. The warning comes just days after Botswanan President Festus Mogae called for urgent action to tackle the growing refugee crisis in Africa. He said he would bring pressure to bear on the African Union (AU) to address the crisis at the forthcoming AU summit in Ethiopia in July. "Given the magnitude of this problem, we as Africans have a moral obligation to be proactive in seeking solutions to this human tragedy, which is an embarrassment to us all," he said in a speech in Addis Ababa, last week. UNHCR pointed out that the future of many refugees was "hanging in the balance" as peace talks were under way which might serve to end the civil conflicts in Somalia and Sudan. UNHCR senior officials would be meeting representatives from Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea to discuss the "possibility of voluntary repatriation", the agency added. Meanwhile, a statement issued by World Food Programme (WFP) called for action by the international community. "The international community has a responsibility towards refugees," the statement quoted Holdbrook Arthur, the WFP regional director for Eastern and Central Africa, as saying. "Their status is acknowledged and protected by international law," he added. "We will fail them if a lack of resources prevents us from feeding them."