WFP appeals for food aid for thousands of refugees

An estimated 231,000 refugesss living in camps in Kenya are in dire need of food, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday, when it appealed for US $6.7 million to feed them until the end of 2005. The agency said maize, pulses, corn-soya blend and oil for rations would run out by October unless funding was received quickly. Wheat and salt would also be exhausted by November, leaving the Kakuma refugee camp in the northwest and Dadaab camps in the east with no food for distribution. Some 11,720 tonnes of food were needed, WFP said in the appeal. It noted that despite an agreement in January to end a 21-year war in southern Sudan, the number of Sudanese refugees in Kakuma was still rising. Nearly 5,000 additional refugees, who said they had fled inter-clan violence and limited resources such as food, shelter, schools, health facilities and employment opportunities, had arrived in Kakuma camp since January, it added. The newcomers brought the number of refugees in the camp to more than 91,000. "The expectation was these numbers would begin dropping off once the peace agreement was signed," Tesema Negash, WFP Kenya Country Director, said. "But the lack of schools, health facilities, food and basic infrastructure plus uncertainty over the peace deal has stopped people from returning to their homeland in significant numbers." An estimated 140,000 Somali refugees in Dadaab camp had also showed no signs of returning home, despite the creation eight months ago of an interim Somali government, which was trying to relocate to the Horn of Africa country from its base in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Kenyan law confines refugees to camps in the northern and eastern parts of the country. The isolated and harsh environment around the camps means they are highly unlikely to find jobs or any other means of feeding themselves. "While the international community often responds to new upheavals and natural disasters, long-standing refugee situations, where hundreds of thousands of people depend on food and other aid, are often overlooked and are last in the line for international assistance," Negash added.