U.N.: Almost a million refugees face hunger in 2005
By JONATHAN FOWLER
The Associated Press
12/21/04 11:09 EST
GENEVA (AP) – Around a million refugees could face hunger and
malnutrition next year because of meager donations from governments
of more prosperous countries, the United Nations said Tuesday.
Several hundred thousand refugees are already struggling to survive
because aid agencies have had to drastically reduce rations to ensure
there is enough to go round, said Ron Redmond, spokesman for the
U.N. high commissioner for refugees.
“We are especially worried for refugees in Africa,” Redmond told
reporters.
In Zambia, handouts already have been halved in the past two months
and soon will be slashed again, putting 87,000 people at risk of
malnutrition.
“Already, we are hearing reports of refugee women resorting to
prostitution to support themselves and their children,” Redmond
added. “Field offices in Zambia also report there has been a marked
increase in children dropping out of school, presumably to help their
families find food.”
In Tanzania, rations were cut by a quarter in October. UNHCR and the
World Food Program found last month that malnutrition is rising among
some 400,000 refugees from Burundi and Congo who live in Tanzania’s
camps.
Malnutrition also threatens some 118,000 refugees in Ethiopia, and
another 224,000 in Kenya, Redmond said.
In conflict-ravaged Congo, WFP says that next month it will need to
make ration cuts of almost one third, Redmond noted.
“Africa is not the only continent facing a breakdown in the food
pipeline,” he said.
In January, 140,000 displaced a decade ago by conflict between Armenia
and Azerbaijan face a complete cut in rations – just two months after
handouts were halved.
Non-U.N. aid agencies also have sounded the alarm, but some have
chastised the United Nations for failing to respond fast enough
to crises.
On Monday, U.S.-based Refugees International said the world body was
moving too slowly to hand out food to people who fled the conflict
in Ivory Coast.
But the Rome-based WFP said Tuesday it can only provide food assistance
to refugees who have a registration and a ration card issued by UNCHR,
given the limited resources of the agency. The ration card is the
only document that makes a refugee eligible for U.N. food assistance.
“We need to be absolutely sure that who gets the food is in need of
it,” said Caroline Hurford, WFP spokeswoman. “Otherwise, what would
we tell our donors?”
Hurford said food supplies are already in the border zone. But many
Ivorians are going back to Ivory Coast to harvest their crop and then
returning to Liberia to look for extra food.
“The process of feeding is not always easy with flows of population
going back and forth,” she said.
Associated Press writer Marta Falconi in Rome contributed to this
report.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress