WFP to reduce rations for refugees in Tanzania due to cash crunch

The World Food Programme says it urgently needs $21 million to avoid further cuts in food allocations.

The latest ration cut is the second in Tanzania in recent months. / Photo: AA Archive
AA Archive

The latest ration cut is the second in Tanzania in recent months. / Photo: AA Archive

The World Food Programme (WFP) has said that more than 200,000 refugees in Tanzania would receive only half rations from next month because of a lack of donor funding.

Food allocations for refugees in Tanzania - of whom 70 percent are from Burundi and the rest from the Democratic Republic of Congo - have been steadily reduced since 2020, WFP said in a statement on Tuesday.

The ration cuts, the second in Tanzania in recent months, follow similar moves around the globe as the UN food agency faces cash shortfalls and soaring food prices, partly a result of the conflict in Ukraine.

In March, these rations, designed to meet the minimum recommended 2,100 kilocalories per person per day, were dropped from 80 percent of that level to 65 percent.

"In June, the ration will go further down to 50 percent, which could leave thousands of refugees struggling to meet their nutritional needs," WFP said, adding that $21 million was urgently needed to avoid further cuts.

The agency's country director for Tanzania, Sarah Gordon-Gibson, said: "WFP is deeply concerned that drastic cuts will force refugees into further vulnerabilities."

WFP announced in March that rations would also be cut for refugees in Burundi and Bangladesh, and appealed for emergency funding to avert further reductions in Yemen.

It has also cut rations in other parts of East Africa in recent years because of the chronic funding issues, including in disaster-ravaged parts of Ethiopia, South Sudan and Kenya.

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