UN agencies calls food assistance to Cameroon refugees at risk due to short of funds

Anjali Sharma

GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 28th March. UN humanitarian agencies on Wednesday warned that vital food assistance to refugees in Cameroon may cease unless funding shortfalls can be filled, in a press alert issued in New York.

The alert from the UNHCR, WFP affects vulnerable people sheltering in the country’s Far North, Adamawa, East and North regions, it said.

It noted that rations have been cut in half in these areas, meaning that food baskets have been missing basic staples including pulses, vegetable oil and salt.

Wanja Kaaria, WFP Country Director in Cameroon said “Without immediate support we will have no option but to further cut the already meagre portions on refugees’ plates, with all the devastating impacts this will bring including rising malnutrition and hunger,”.

Ms. Kaaria warned that families facing hunger cope by pulling children out of school and eating less food; this affects women and children especially.

Cameroon to be affected by three humanitarian crises; one is in the Far North and linked to violence and insecurity close by, in Lake Chad and Nigeria, it said.

Northwest and Southwest regions, where armed groups are fighting Government forces and the third is in neighboring Central African Republic, the alert stated.

It noted that thousands of people have been uprooted by fighting, fleeing to Cameroon for shelter, meaning that the country now hosts more than half a million refugees and asylum-seekers.

The $371 million humanitarian response plan for Cameroon is only five per cent funded.