WFP appeals for donations to feed refugees

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) cautioned on Wednesday that it would be forced to reduce food rations to more than 118,000 refugees in camps in Ethiopia unless it received vital donations. The agency said, in a statement issued in Addis Ababa, it needed US $4.2 million "to provide enough food for the refugees for at least the next six months", adding that it required an extra 8,500 mt "of cereals, vegetable oil, pulses, salt and blended foods". If fresh assistance did not materialise, it said, WFP would "reduce rations to beneficiaries by 30 percent from January 2005", in addition to the expectation that cereal stocks could end by next April. "When rations are reduced, the health of beneficiaries deteriorates," Georgia Shaver, WFP country director in Ethiopia was quoted as saying. "Young children, women and the elderly in particular, become more vulnerable to malaria. When epidemics occur, mortality rates are much higher than in normal circumstances when refugees are properly fed." The agency noted the deficit could postpone the repatriation of 6,500 Somali refugees now in eastern Ethiopia. Without renewed financial support, it would also not be able to supply the refugees with a repatriation food packet prior to their leaving. Acording to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the majority of the refugees are from Sudan, some 16,000 from Somalia and 9,000 from Eritrea. According to the statement, WFP had received $3.4 million of the $26.7 million that it required to assist the refugees in Ethiopia through the year 2005. Contributions were received from the United States ($2.5 million), Switzerland ($76,792) and from various multilateral funds ($750,000).