UN Lacks Funds For African Refugees: 80,000 Refugees On the Brink of Starvation
UN Lacks Funds For African Refugees: 80,000 Refugees On the Brink of Starvation
War brings with it the destruction in slow forms as well. Currently, there are approximately 800,000 African refugees on the brink of starvation because their food rations have been slashed by 60% by a fund strapped UN. The UN World Food Programme and the refugee agency UNHCR has given a joint statement indicating that the cuts are going to worsen an already dismal and unacceptable level of acute malnutrition, stunting and anaemia, especially in children.
The heads of both UN World Food Programme and UNHCR made the appeal to the government representatives to provide more funds to feed the refugees at the Geneva meeting held for this purpose. With so many resources and certain people in developed as well as developing countries possessing wealth to feed entire nations, the current plight of the refugees highlights just what war and income inequality can jointly cause. UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres has stated that in a world of plenty, it is unacceptable for refugees to face chronic hunger.
World Food Programme has indicated that it will need around $186 million till the close of the year to restore ration and prevent cuts. UNHCR has indicated that another $39 million to fund nutritional support to refugees in need from across the continent. The current funding crisis has forced the World Food Programme to lower rations for a third of the 2.4 million refugees it feeds in 22 African nations. The rations of 800,000 refugees will now be slashed by nearly half.
The situation is most critical for around 300,000 refugees in Chad from the Sudanese region of Darfur and from the Central African Republic. Ration has been cut by around 60% according to the statement. In many cases, refugees will be left with just 850 calories of rations per day compared to 2,100 calories needed for adults to remain healthy.
In Central Africa and South Sudan, some 150,000 refugees will now face a cut in supplies by around 50%. Another 338,000 refugees in Liberia, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Ghana and Mauritania will also face cuts of 43% in ration, according to UN agencies.
Temporary ration reductions due to insecurity have hit camps in several nations since early 2013 including the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon as well as Kenya. With war and crisis ravaging all parts of the world in some form or another, funding needs to keep pace with humanitarian operations. Refugees need to be supported in their hour of need.
Even the smallest ration cuts can have life threatening consequences for already undernourished people and children are the worst afflicted. Refugees in Africa are facing a grim future as this latest calamity has hit them. If funds do not reach those in need in time, war as well as inaction on part of those who could have saved lives will claim more victims. War is a curse on mankind and peace remains elusive. World leaders need to understand the true impact of war before they engage in conflicts yet again. Even as refugees and war victims continue to suffer, warring factions refuse to understand the need for peace.
