WFP cuts food rations for almost 150,000 refugees in Uganda
January 27, 2015 (KAMPALA) – Almost 150,000 refugees living in Uganda will begin receiving reduced food rations due to inadequate funds, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said.
The ration cut of 50%, which began on Tuesday, came as WFP struggles to raise an additional US$30 million for its operations in Uganda for the next six months.
Those affected are people who arrived in Uganda before July 2013 – nearly half of all refugees receiving WFP food assistance in Uganda. This figure, the agency said, does not include 138,000 refugees who fled South Sudan since fighting broke out there in December 2013.
Also exempt are extremely vulnerable individuals identified by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
Without the reduction, WFP would reportedly run out of food stocks for all refugees in Uganda from April. The last time the amount of food given to refugees in Uganda was cut was January to March last year, the humanitarian agency said.
“Reducing rations is a last resort to ensure we can continue providing life-saving support for the most vulnerable refugees,” said WFP country director, Alice Martin-Daihirou.
“We urgently need more funding to restore full assistance to people in Uganda who have no means to feed themselves,” she added.
There are fears that the reduction in food ration could affect the new South Sudanese refugees, should WFP fail to receive substantial contributions in the coming months.
The announcement reportedly came at a particularly vulnerable time for refugees in Uganda.
An assessment conducted in late 2014 by the government, WFP, UNHCR and the UN children Fund (UNICEF) reportedly found that more than half of all refugee families due to be affected by the ration cuts had a poor harvest.
“With the cuts factored in, there is a high risk that these refugees will experience stress in the first quarter of 2015 as their food stocks run low,” WFP observed.
Meanwhile, the agency says it requires US$7.6 million each month to support an estimated 383,000 refugees this year, stressing that the influx of South Sudanese refugees in the past 13 months has tripled the monthly funding requirement.
(ST)