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Almost a million refugees face hunger in 2005

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  • Almost a million refugees face hunger in 2005

    U.N.: Almost a million refugees face hunger in 2005
    by JONATHAN FOWLER; Associated Press Writer

    Associated Press Worldstream
    December 21, 2004 Tuesday 11:10 AM Eastern Time

    GENEVA -- Around a million refugees could face hunger and malnutrition
    next year because of meager donations from governments of more
    prosperous countries, the United Nations said Tuesday.

    Several hundred thousand refugees are already struggling to survive
    because aid agencies have had to drastically reduce rations to ensure
    there is enough to go round, said Ron Redmond, spokesman for the U.N.
    high commissioner for refugees.

    "We are especially worried for refugees in Africa," Redmond told
    reporters.

    In Zambia, handouts already have been halved in the past two months
    and soon will be slashed again, putting 87,000 people at risk of
    malnutrition.

    "Already, we are hearing reports of refugee women resorting to
    prostitution to support themselves and their children," Redmond
    added. "Field offices in Zambia also report there has been a marked
    increase in children dropping out of school, presumably to help their
    families find food."

    In Tanzania, rations were cut by a quarter in October. UNHCR and the
    World Food Program found last month that malnutrition is rising among
    some 400,000 refugees from Burundi and Congo who live in Tanzania's
    camps.

    Malnutrition also threatens some 118,000 refugees in Ethiopia, and
    another 224,000 in Kenya, Redmond said.

    In conflict-ravaged Congo, WFP says that next month it will need to
    make ration cuts of almost one third, Redmond noted.

    "Africa is not the only continent facing a breakdown in the food
    pipeline," he said.

    In January, 140,000 displaced a decade ago by conflict between Armenia
    and Azerbaijan face a complete cut in rations - just two months after
    handouts were halved.

    Non-U.N. aid agencies also have sounded the alarm, but some have
    chastised the United Nations for failing to respond fast enough
    to crises.

    On Monday, U.S.-based Refugees International said the world body was
    moving too slowly to hand out food to people who fled the conflict
    in Ivory Coast.

    But the Rome-based WFP said Tuesday it can only provide food assistance
    to refugees who have a registration and a ration card issued by UNCHR,
    given the limited resources of the agency. The ration card is the
    only document that makes a refugee eligible for U.N. food assistance.

    "We need to be absolutely sure that who gets the food is in need of
    it," said Caroline Hurford, WFP spokeswoman. "Otherwise, what would
    we tell our donors?"

    Hurford said food supplies are already in the border zone. But many
    Ivorians are going back to Ivory Coast to harvest their crop and then
    returning to Liberia to look for extra food.

    "The process of feeding is not always easy with flows of population
    going back and forth," she said.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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