Critical malnutrition levels in refugee camps

Malnutrition has reached critical levels in Fugnido and Bonga refugee camps, which are in an area wracked by ethnic violence in recent years, the UN said on Wednesday. The two camps, located close to the Sudanese border in the Gambella region, are home to almost 48,000 people. "A combination of factors have led to this severe situation, including delayed delivery of food due to transport problems, insecurity both inside and outside the Fugnido camp, and a lack of basic health and safe water services," the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report. "In Bonga camp, food deliveries have also been delayed and crops have not been planted due to restrictions in movement outside the camp," OCHA added. Emergency feeding centres had been set up for 170 children in the camps. Clean water was being trucked in by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), while the UN World Food Programme (WFP) was trying to transport supplies to the refugees. "This is a serious situation that requires action," Lisetta Trebbi, who heads the WFP refugee programme, said. The OCHA report followed a recent assessment by WFP, UNHCR and the Ethiopian government’s Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA). The study found that malnutrition was highest among the Anuak population living in Fugnido camp. Trebbi said this was because parts of the camp were newly constructed and basic services for the Anuak refugees were still being established. Several hundred people in the Gambella region were killed in ethnic clashes, the worst of which occurred in late 2003 and 2004. According to human rights groups, the Anuak were targeted after being blamed for the ambush and murder of eight government workers in December 2003. The reprisal killings drove thousands to flee across the border into neighbouring Sudan to escape the violence. They returned to the camps earlier this year. Meanwhile, OCHA reported that recent humanitarian assessments by the US Agency for International Development had found several cases of severe hunger in southern Ethiopia close to the Bale Mountains, where local officials reported some deaths. "Many of the deaths in the affected kebeles [districts] are reported to have been among young children," the OCHA report said. "Many people have been left bedridden and unable to work because of painful joints and swollen legs."