Emergency Response: Over 150,000 CAR Refugees Face Hunger

The World Food Programme has announced a 50 per cent reduction of food supply amidst an urgent need to raise FCFA 1.4 billion to salvage the situation.

Over 150,000 Central African Republic (CAR) refugees living in the East, Adamawa and North Regions of Cameroon are faced with famine following the announcement by the World Food Programme (WFP) that it will cut down food supply by 50 per cent in November and December 2016. The move, according to the UN Agency is as a result of the crucial financial deficit facing the institution.

In this regard, the World Food Programme Cameroon Representative, Abdoulaye Balde and his counterpart of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Khassim Diagne, Friday November 11, 2016 in Yaounde, launched an urgent appeal to donors to mobilise 2.4 million dollars (FCFA 1.4 Billion) to rescue the precarious situation of food shortage. Speaking in a joint press conference, the WFP country Director stated that the agency is in urgent need of funds to the tune of FCFA 1,4 billion to meet the food needs of the Central African Republic refugees in the East Region for the last two months of the year.

The decision, Mr Abdoulaye Balde noted, is painful but the agency has no choice than to reduce food supply to 50 per cent. While admitting that the government of Cameroon has done a lot for the wellbeing of the refugees, the WFP country Director appealed to the international community to wade in as 90 per cent of the refugees rely on humanitarian assistance. The WFP, he noted, is profoundly preoccupied with the consequences on the nutritional health of the refugees as well as the bearing ...