KENYA-POPULATION: WFP Needs More Funds To Get Food to Refugees

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Feb 18 1998 (IPS) - Some 125,000 refugees in camps in Dadaab, near Kenya’s border with Somalia, face an acute shortage of food simply because there isn’t enough money available for airlifting supplies to them, according to a U.N. official here.

Rikki Malik-Lali, adviser to the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP)’s Refugee Feeding Programme, said Wednesday that food rations would be cut by half in two weeks’ time if urgent funding for the Dadaab airbridge was not received immediately.

She explained that this could have a telling effect on the refugees since they are particularly weak and already suffering from an increase in malaria as a result of constant rains and flood conditions in the camps, as in other parts of northeast Kenya and south-western Somalia.

“These people are suffering intensely already and to cut their rations at this time is very worrying,” said Malik-Lali. “They have no other means of survival and are entirely dependent upon WFP food aid.”

The WFP says it provides nearly 1,800 tons of food monthly to the 125,000 Somali and Sudanese refugees in Dadaab’s three camps — Ifo, Hagadera and Dagahaley. Refugees receive just under 1,900 calories in their daily 510-gramme ration, made up of maize, wheat flour, beans, lentils, oil and salt.

“This provides the bare minimum in nutritional value,” said Malik-Lali. “If it is halved we will see a rapid increase in malnutrition which could ultimately lead to starvation and further outbreak of disease.”

WFP says it has been forced to airlift all food to the camps since December when unexpected, heavy rainfall rendered the Garissa-Dadaab main road impassable. “According to WFP representatives, unless there is a complete halt in the rains, which is unlikely given the oncoming rainy season, the chances of the road link being restored are remote,” she said.

The WFP says it has been urging donors to give 2.2 million dollars to continue the airbridge until March, as part of an emergency appeal for 12 million dollars for air and logistical support for flood victims in Kenya and Somalia. “To-date, only 705,000 dollars has been received from the United States and the Dutch governments, but these funds have now been exhausted,” said Malik-Lali.

She said if WFP did not quickly receive the required funding it would have to stop the current flights on which it also ferries non-food relief supplies on behalf of other aid agencies.

“We have ample food stocks in Mombasa and Garissa, but currently we simply cannot deliver the food by road. We are left with no other choice but to cut refugee rations by half for the first part of the March distribution cycle,” said Malik-Lali.

Rains due early April, when the normal rainy season starts, could cause further damage to roads in north-eastern Kenya and the next few weeks will be a critical time for WFP to build up its food stocks before those rains set in. “At this time we urgently appeal to the international community to provide additional funding,” said Malik-Lali. “It is essential that the rations are not cut.”

WFP says it will take advantage of any drier weather in the weeks ahead to restore deliveries of food to people in flood- stricken areas. It says it is also working with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Kenyan Ministry of Public Works and interested donors to initiate emergency road repairs before the onset of the long rains.

The UN food agency started assisting Somali, Ethiopian and Sudanese refugees here in 1991. Today it provides food assistance to the refugees in Daadab and another 52,000 in Kakuma, working in partnership with the UNHCR.

The WFP’s appeal came just one day after the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sadako Ogata, left Kenya, the fifth stop in a nine-nation African tour.

“In my consultations with the African leaders, I have requested them to support UNHCR efforts to obtain a recommitment to the refugee protection principle while carefully considering their concerns,” she told journalists here on Tuesday.

But few here believe that improving the Nairobi-Dadaad road, will feature prominently on the government’s priority list.

“If anything, the government would concentrate on the crucial Nairobi-Mombasa Port road which serves Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, parts of southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo,” said a businessman here.