WFP Faces $86 Million Shortage in Feeding 1.27 Million Refugees

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said Thursday it is facing an 86-million-U.S. dollar funding shortfall for feeding 1.27 million refugees in Uganda over the next six months.

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The food aid agency said in a statement issued here that the funding shortfall came at a time when food security among refugees has been weakening in the East African country. Because of the shortfall, the WFP cannot rule out the possibility of reducing the refugees' cash or food rations for a third time since April 2020.

The WFP was forced to reduce the refugees' rations by 30 percent in April 2020, and then by an additional 10 percent in February 2021 due to a decline in funding since 2019, according to the UN body.

"The possibility of further cuts brings greater risks to the refugees' food security and means of coping, which greatly undermines Uganda's aspirations for self-reliance among the refugees," it added.

A WFP study in March found that 43 percent of refugee households had inadequate diets and more than half of all households reported using negative survival strategies. The agency welcomed a contribution of 4,500 metric tons of rice from South Korea. The food aid will be used to feed 392,000 South Sudanese refugees over the next one to two months.

Uganda currently hosts 1.47 million refugees from neighboring countries like South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and Somalia.

The WFP provides the refugees with monthly relief assistance in the form of in-kind food or cash to meet their basic food needs. The level of assistance depends on funding availability.