The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) says that critical food shortage may soon hit hard on over two million Africa’s refugees.
This warning was given in a statement signed by Mr Hanson Tamfu, External Relations Officer, UNHCR Nigeria, on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to the statement, Ms Etharin Cousin, Executive Director, WFP and Mr Fillipo Grandi, UNHCR’s High Commissioner expressed their concern over the food shortage which might affect refugees across ten African Countries.
They explained that the food shortage could worsen in coming months without new resources to meet food needs of the refugees.
The UN officials disclosed that the number of refugees in Africa nearly doubled from 2.6 million in 2011 to nearly 5 million in 2016.
They said that while donor funding for refugees assistance increased during this period, it did not keep pace with the rapidly rising needs of refugees, noting that the humanitarian response is significantly underfunded.
Both agency heads, however, warned that unless more support is urgently made available, the food shortage would have dire consequences on the health and protection of the refugees.
“We cannot imagine how difficult life is for thousands of refugee families with no food, who are often denied the possibility to work or provide for themselves in other ways.
“Refugees are extraordinarily resilient, but cuts in food assistance, sometimes as high as 50 per cent are having a devastating impact on the health and nutrition of thousands of families,’’ Grandi said.
Cousin said that millions of people depend on the WFP for food, for them to treat them and prevent them from being malnourished to stay alive.
“In Africa, they are in danger of being overshadowed by large humanitarian crises elsewhere.
“Donors have been very generous facing unprecedented global needs, but no refugee deserves to be abandoned and left behind’’, Cousin said.
They said that the nutritional situation of the refugees before the cut of food assistance was already worrying and for the situation to worsen signifies looming tragedies.
A WFP nutritional survey in 2016 documented high levels of acute malnutrition and anemia in many refugee camps across Africa.
(Source: NAN)
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