Refugees in Ethiopia risk losing food aid: UN agency

A displaced Sudanese boy who has returned from Ethiopia stands in front of a tent in a camp run by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan's border town of Gallabat in the eastern state of Gadaref. (AFP)

• According to the agency, the latest cuts mean refugees are now receiving fewer than 1,000 calories a day in food aid — less than half the recommended 2,100 daily intake
• The director of the program (WFP) in Ethiopia, Zlatan Milisic, said it needed to raise about $230 million to sustain humanitarian operations for the next six months

ADDIS ABABA: The World Food Programme is on the brink of suspending food aid for millions of refugees in Ethiopia due to cuts in international aid, the UN agency said on Friday.
Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, hosts many refugees from neighboring Sudan and South Sudan, and also has internally displaced residents fleeing internal conflicts.
The director of the program (WFP) in Ethiopia, Zlatan Milisic, said it needed to raise about $230 million to sustain humanitarian operations for the next six months.
“Without immediate new funding, WFP could be forced to completely suspend food assistance for all refugees in Ethiopia in the coming months,” he said in a statement.
Reductions in foreign humanitarian aid by the United States and other Western countries this year have worsened funding issues in many developing countries.
WFP said this month it was forced to cut food rations for 780,000 refugees in 27 camps across Ethiopia.
“We are making impossible choices,” Milisic said.
“These reductions are just another step toward stopping food distributions completely, putting the lives of those we currently assist at risk.”
According to the agency, the latest cuts mean refugees are now receiving fewer than 1,000 calories a day in food aid — less than half the recommended 2,100 daily intake.
Ethiopia is receiving a surge of refugees from neighboring Sudan, gripped by civil war since April 2023, and South Sudan, long troubled by instability.
The Horn of African nation is also facing internal conflicts, particularly in its two most populous regions, which have displaced tens of thousands of people.
“Every ration cut is a child left hungrier, a mother forced to skip meals, a family pushed closer to the edge,” Milisic said.
In April, WFP said it had halted aid for 650,000 malnourished women and children in Ethiopia.
From January to October, it provided life-saving assistance to 4.7 million vulnerable people across the country.