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WFP seeks 13.7 mln USD for refugees in Kenya amid cuts in food rations

Xinhua, December 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday appealed for 13.7 million U.S. dollars to feed 434,000 refugees living in Kenya's two main camps.

WFP Country Director for Kenya, Annalisa Conte, said the UN agency had been forced to make new cuts in food rations for refugees in Dadaab and Kakuma camps and in the newly-established Kalobeyei settlement amid a severe funding shortage.

"WFP immediately requires 13.7 million dollars to cover the food and cash needs for the refugees between December and April," Conte said in a statement issued in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

"We are appealing to donors to quickly come to the aid of the refugees," she added.

The WFP provides food assistance to refugees in Kenya as a combination of cash transfers and food distributions.

Starting December, to stretch food supplies further, WFP was forced to cut the food ration size to half of the refugees' monthly entitlement.

The WFP says that even with this reduction, the food currently available will only last until the end of February unless it receives new funding quickly.

Refugees in Dadaab and Kakuma camps receive a monthly in-kind food basket (cereals, pulses, vegetable oil, and nutrient-enriched flour) and a cash transfer equivalent to a third of their minimum food requirement. The cash allows refugees to buy food products from local markets.

Cash transfers have not yet been reduced, but the WFP says the funding for cash-based assistance will be exhausted by the end of January if new resources do not become available.

"Without an urgent response from other donors, we will completely run out of food for more than 400,000 people in Dadaab and Kakuma at the end of February," said Conte.

She said if WFP was forced to discontinue cash transfers, it would have a particularly devastating effect on 7,500 refugees in the Kalobeyei settlement, who receive almost all their food assistance in the form of cash.

Kalobeyei, 25 km west of Kakuma, is a "model" settlement intended to offer a more durable solution to hosting refugees.

"If donors respond immediately, WFP can quickly resume the much-needed food assistance by using its mobile phone-based system to disburse cash to refugees and by mobilizing food commodities from regional stocks," said Conte. Endit