The World Food Program (WFP) is asking for 426 million dollars to be able to meet the needs of refugees, it announced on Sunday June 19, as World Refugee Day is celebrated on Monday June 20. Due to a lack of funding, the humanitarian organization said it has already started to reduce the aid distributed in Africa, which is likely to get worse.
Three-quarters of refugees supported by WFP in East Africa saw their rations cut in half. Those most affected by this drastic drop in aid are located in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda.
In West Africa, aid disruption is imminent, the WFP said. Without giving an exact figure, David Beasley, executive director of the UN agency, announced a reduction ” significant » rations. Refugees from Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and even Mali will be particularly affected.
For David Beasley, these decisions are heartbreaking: “ Refugees depend on us for their survival, did he declare, but the available resources cannot keep up with the growing demand for food in the world. »
In effect, the war in Ukraine has aggravated the global crisis by creating 6 million additional refugees, but also by driving up the prices of basic products, especially cereals.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, for his part, believes that war could ” push tens of millions of people into food insecurity “.