Inadequate funding forces WFP to cut refugee rations

The United Nations food agency said on Tuesday that it had been forced to reduce food aid rations to some 230,000 Somali and Sudanese refugees living in two camps in remote areas of eastern and northeastern Kenya as a result of insufficient funding.

"Our lack of funding has given us little choice. Starting this week, the refugees will be receiving a food ration equivalent to 1,750 kilocalories per day, that's a 20 percent decrease in their daily intake," Tesema Negash, Kenya country director for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said in a statement.

"This cut will enable us to extend the limited food currently available over the next few months," he added.

The ration cuts for refugees in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps come as WFP struggles to raise US $170 million for its operation to feed 3.5 million Kenyans affected by severe drought.

WFP said without fresh pledges it would run out of pulses in March, cereals and vegetable oil in May, and corn soya blend for the refugees in June. WFP Kenya requires $5 million to provide adequate rations for refugees between March and July, and an additional $14 million until the end of 2006.

While the refugees regularly receive food assistance, global acute malnutrition rates are above the 15 percent emergency threshold, with 19.6 percent in Kakuma in the northeast and 17.5 percent in Dadaab in the east, according to WFP.