The World Food Programme (WFP) said in a press release that it is “being forced to drop another 2 million hungry people from food assistance in Afghanistan in September, bringing to 10 million the number of people cut off from its support this year in the country.”
According to the WFP’s press release, due to a massive funding shortfall, going forward WFP will only be able to provide emergency assistance to 3 million people per month.
“Amid already worrying levels of hunger and malnutrition, we are obliged to choose between the hungry and the starving, leaving millions of families scrambling for their next meal,” said Hsiao-Wei Lee, WFP’s Country Director and Representative in Afghanistan. “With the few resources we have left, we are not able to serve all those people teetering on the edge of utter destitution.”
Mauritania, Bassikounou, Mbera camp, February 2015
WFP supports food and nutrition security for Malian refugees in the Mbera camp in Mauritania. WFP has reached over 62,000 refugees in 2014 with monthly food distributions, nutrition interventions in prevention and treatment of moderate acute malnutrition in children, pregnant and nursing women and emergency school feeding operations. Refugees receive a monthly food ration composed of cereals, pulses, oil and salt. Nutrition assistance was provided to 7,380 children aged 6-59 months and 1,880 pregnant and nursing women. More than 4,500 children receive a daily meal at school.
The overall assistance has improved the food security of the refugees. The post distribution monitoring survey conducted in Mbera in October 2014 showed that 90 percent of Malian refugees in Mbera camp have an acceptable food consumption standard against 77 percent in October 2013. With the overall volatile security situation, UNHCR does not anticipate any major repatriations in the coming months.
Photo: WFP/Agron Dragaj 