Cash-strapped UN warns of 'severe hunger' in Malawi refugee camp
Cash-strapped UN warns of 'severe hunger' in Malawi refugee camp
At least 57,000 people are at risk of "severe hunger" in Malawi's Dzaleka refugee camp following drastic cuts to funding, the United Nations World Food Programme warned Friday.
The announcement came as the Rome-based agency said it faced a 40-percent drop in funding this year and warned of an "unprecedented crisis", which could affect life-saving aid for 58 million people worldwide.
"We might completely halt the cash assistance in May if we don't receive any further funding," WFP Malawi deputy country director Simon Denhere told reporters in the capital Lilongwe.
"All the 57,000 refugees might be at a risk of severe hunger by May if we do not receive any contributions from our development partners," he said.
Refugees and asylum seekers in the overcrowded Dzaleka camp, about 40 kilometres north of Lilongwe, depend on the agency's cash-based food assistance of 15,000 Malawian Kwacha per person to survive each month.
Most of them come from the conflict-torn Democratic Republic of Congo as well as Rwanda and Burundi and have no means of subsistence as Malawi restricts refugee employment.
"Food is a big problem in the camp. If the WFP halts the distribution it will be chaos, because these people don't have anything to rely on," camp manager Elton Phulusa told AFP.
While the WFP has held off naming any individual country, the United States, by far the UN agency's biggest donor, has dramatically slashed its aid funding since President Donald Trump took office in January.
Other countries including Germany and Britain have also made large cuts to overseas aid.
Malawi was among 28 countries in which the WFP said its operations faced severe funding constraints and "dangerously low food supplies" through to August.
According to Denhere, the agency would need about $10.7 million to restore full rations until December 2025 in Dzaleka refugee camp.
The cuts will cause "a lot of trauma", said Joyce Wamuyu, a Rwandan community leader in the camp, as hundreds queued in the sweltering heat to receive what could be their last monthly stipend.
"No one works here, so it will be difficult for us to survive," she said.
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