WFP resumes full food rations for refugees in Kenya

The UN World Food Program (WFP) said Friday it has resumed providing full food rations to refugees in Dadaab and Kakuma camps in northern Kenya thanks to new donor funding.

WFP Country Director for Kenya Annalisa Conte said the full rations which resumed on April 1 after more than a year of ration cuts will continue from April to July.

The UN food agency however clarified that the funding currently available for cash transfers -- which make up 30 percent of the refugees' food assistance -- will last only until May.

"We are urging our donors to continue making new resources available to enable us to carry on providing this much-needed food assistance for 420,000 people," Conte said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

The UN agency was in December 2016 forced to make new cuts by 50 percent in food rations for refugees in Kenya amid a severe funding shortage as the UN agency rapidly ran out of resources to feed mainly Somali and South Sudan refugees in the two camps.

However, WFP said new contributions from China which provided 5 million U.S. dollars, Canada (2.2 million dollars), Germany (2.7 million dollars as part of a multi-year contribution), Japan (2.2 million dollars), Sweden (1 million dollars), and Britain (5.1 million dollars as part of a multi-year contribution) enabled it to resume full rations.

"A 22.5 million dollars in-kind contribution from the United States has arrived in the country and is available for distribution," WFP said.

Each month, WFP provides each refugee with a mix of food items -- cereals, pulses, vegetable oil, and nutrient-enriched flour -- and a cash transfer equivalent to a third of the minimum food requirement.

The cash, sent through mobile telephones, allows refugees to buy food products of their choice from local markets. Enditem