The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed a US$6.5 million contribution from the government of the United States of America in support of Congolese and Burundian refugees in Rwanda.
This additional contribution brings total the humanitarian assistance from USAID-Food for Peace to provide food and nutrition assistance to refugees in Rwanda to $US 10 million this fiscal year.
The contribution comes at a critical time, when WFP’s resources are being stretched to respond to food needs of an increasing number of camp based refugees.
Funding shortages had forced WFP to trim assistance to 90 percent in November and December 2017. Persistent funding challenges saw a further reduction of the ration sizes to
75 percent from January 2018. A survey conducted in February 2018, showed a deterioration of food security among refugees due to ration reductions as families with poor and borderline food consumption had soared to 20.4 percent from the 10 percent before reductions.
However, refugees identified as particularly vulnerable in all camps, continued to receive full rations of supplementary feeding from WFP, through targeted safety net activities.
Those who continued to benefit from full nutrition assistance included pregnant and nursing mothers, children under 2 years-old and the treatment of malnourished children under five years-old, as well as school children and people living with HIV and tuberculosis patients under treatment.
“We are incredibly thankful for the continuous support we receive from the American people and specifically for this critical contribution; thanks to this generous and timely grant we will now be able to re-instate the full rations refugees entirely depend on,” says Jean-Pierre de Margerie, WFP Rwanda representative and country director.
The US funding will be used to buy locally produced maize grain, beans and fortified blended foods for malnourished children, as well as cash based transfers.
The food will be distributed as in-kind monthly rations to Burundian camp-based refugees and as monthly cash based transfers for refugees from DRC to purchase food from local markets. The American contribution will enable WFP to meet the immediate needs of 75,000 Congolese and 55,000
Burundian refugees hosted in six camps in Rwanda over the next months. Refugees in Rwanda remain highly dependent on humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs as access to land, and income-generating opportunities remains limited.
The United States is the largest donor of WFP’s humanitarian and development programs in Rwanda, contributing US$16 million in 2017.
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