Food rations are halved in one of Africa's largest refugee camps after US aid cuts
Martin Komol sighs as he inspects his cracked, mud-walled house that is one rain away from fully collapsing. Nothing seems to last for him and 300,000 other refugees in this remote Kakuma camp in Kenya — now, not even food rations.
Funding for the U.N. World Food Program has dropped after the Trump administration paused support in March, part of the widespread dismantling of foreign aid by the United States, once the world's biggest donor.
That means Komol, a widowed father of five from Uganda, has been living on handouts from neighbors since his latest monthly ration ran out two weeks ago. He said he survives on one meal a day, sometimes a meal every two days.
'When we can't find anyone to help us, we become sick, but when we go to the hospital, they say it's just hunger and tell us to go back home,' the 59-year-old said. His wife is buried here. He is reluctant to return to Uganda, one of the more than 20 home countries of Kakuma's refugees.
Food rations have been halved. Previous ration cuts led to protests in March. Monthly cash transfers that refugees used to buy proteins and vegetables to supplement the rice, lentils and cooking oil distributed by WFP have ended this month.
Each refugee now receives 3 kilograms (6 pounds) of rice per month, far below the 9 kilograms recommended by the U.N. for optimal nutrition. WFP hopes to receive the next donation of rice by August. That's along with 1 kilogram of lentils and 500 milliliters of cooking oil per person.
'Come August, we are likely to see a more difficult scenario. If WFP doesn't receive any funding between now and then, it means only a fraction of the refugees will be able to get assistance. It means only the most extremely vulnerable will be targeted,' said Colin Buleti, WFP's head in Kakuma. WFP is seeking help from other donors.
As dust swirls along paths between the camp's makeshift houses, the youngest children run and play, largely unaware of their parents' fears.
But they can't escape hunger. Komol's 10-year-old daughter immerses herself in schoolbooks when there's nothing to eat.
'When she was younger she used to cry, but now she tries to ask for food from the neighbors, and when she can't get any she just sleeps hungry,' Komol said. In recent weeks, they have drunk water to try to feel full.
The shrinking rations have led to rising cases of malnutrition among children under 5 and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.
At Kakuma's largest hospital, run by the International Rescue Committee, children with malnutrition are given fortified formula milk.
Nutrition officer Sammy Nyang'a said some children are brought in too late and die within the first few hours of admission. The 30-bed stabilization ward admitted 58 children in March, 146 in April and 106 in May. Fifteen children died in April, up from the monthly average of five. He worries they will see more this month.
'Now with the cash transfers gone, we expect more women and children to be unable to afford a balanced diet,' Nyang'a said.
The hospital had been providing nutrient-dense porridge for children and mothers, but the flour has run out after stocks, mostly from the U.S., were depleted in March. A fortified peanut paste given to children who have been discharged is also running out, with current supplies available until August.
In the ward of whimpering children, Susan Martine from South Sudan cares for her 2-year-old daughter, who has sores after swelling caused by severe malnutrition.
The mother of three said her family often sleeps hungry, but her older children still receive hot lunches from a WFP school feeding program. For some children in the camp, it's their only meal. The program also faces pressure from the aid cuts.
'I don't know how we will survive with the little food we have received this month,' Martine said.
The funding cuts are felt beyond Kakuma's refugee community. Businessman Chol Jook recorded monthly sales of 700,000 Kenyan shillings ($5,400) from the WFP cash transfer program and now faces losses.
Those who are hungry could slip into debt as they buy on credit, he said.
___
The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Photos show Sudanese refugees who have fled to neighboring Chad in their hundreds of thousands
Nearly a quarter-million refugees have arrived in Adre, a border town in neighboring Chad and the humanitarian front line on the edge of one of the world's most devastating wars is in danger. This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Starving Sudanese people eating weeds to survive amid brutal war
People in Sudan are resorting to boiling wild plants and weeds with salt to survive, as the country grapples with a devastating war and widespread hunger. For many, these desperate measures are the only means to quiet the pangs of starvation. Among those struggling is A.H., a 60-year-old retired school teacher, who penned a love poem to a plant known as Khadija Koro, grateful for the lifeline it offered. He wrote that it was "a balm for us that spread through the spaces of fear", and kept him and many others from starving. A.H., who requested anonymity due to fears of retribution from the warring factions for speaking to the press, is one of 24.6 million people in Sudan facing acute food insecurity – nearly half the nation's population, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. Sudan plunged into conflict in April 2023, when simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) escalated into full-scale fighting, initially in the capital Khartoum and then spreading across the country. The war has claimed over 20,000 lives, displaced nearly 13 million people, and pushed vast swathes of the population to the brink of famine in what aid workers have described as the world's largest hunger crisis. Aid organisations report that the conflict has caused market prices to skyrocket, severely hampered aid delivery, and drastically shrunk agricultural lands in a country once considered a global breadbasket. The situation is particularly dire in regions such as Kordofan, the Nuba Mountains, and Darfur, where areas like El Fasher and the Zamzam camp remain inaccessible to groups like the Norwegian Refugee Council, as confirmed by aid worker Mathilde Vu, who is based in Port Sudan. Some individuals are surviving on just one meal a day, often a simple millet porridge, while in North Darfur, some have even resorted to sucking on coal in a desperate attempt to ease their hunger. On Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the Sudanese military leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and asked him for a week-long ceasefire in El Fasher to allow aid delivery. Burhan agreed to that request, according to an army statement, but it's unknown whether the RSF would agree to that truce. A.H. said aid distribution often provided slight relief. His wife in children live in Obeid and also struggle to secure enough food due to high prices in the market. His poem continued: 'You were a world that sends love into the barren time. You were a woman woven from threads of the sun. You were the sandalwood and the jasmine and a revelation of green, glowing and longing." Fighting restricted travel, worsening food insecurity Sudanese agricultural minister Abu Bakr al-Bashari told Al-Hadath news channel in April that there are no indicators of famine in the country, but there is shortage of food supplies in areas controlled by the paramilitary forces, known as RSF. However, Leni Kinzli, World Food Programme Sudan spokesperson, said 17 areas in Gezeira, most of the Darfur region, and Khartoum, including Jebel Aulia are at risk of famine. Each month, over 4 million people receive assistance from the group, including 1.7 million in areas facing famine or at risk, Kinzli said. The state is suffering from two conflicts: one between the Rapid Support Forces and the army, and another with the People's Liberation Movement-North, who are fighting against the army and have ties with the RSF, making it nearly impossible to access food, clean water, or medicine. He can't travel to Obeid in North Kordofan to be with his family, as the Rapid Support Forces blocked roads. Violence and looting have made travel unsafe, forcing residents to stay in their neighborhoods, limiting their access to food, aid workers said. A.H. is supposed to get a retirement pension from the government, but the process is slow, so he doesn't have a steady income. He can only transfer around $35 weekly to his family out of temporary training jobs, which he says is not enough. Hassan, another South Kordofan resident in Kadugli said that the state has turned into a 'large prison for innocent citizens' due to the lack of food, water, shelter, income, and primary health services caused by the RSF siege. International and grassroots organizations in the area where he lives were banned by the local government, according to Hassan, who asked to be identified only by his first name in fear of retribution for speaking publicly while being based in an area often engulfed with fighting. So residents ate the plants out of desperation. 'You would groan to give life an antidote when darkness appeared to us through the window of fear.,' A.H. wrote in his poem. "You were the light, and when our tears filled up our in the eyes, you were the nectar.' Food affordability Ms Vu warned that food affordability is another ongoing challenge as prices rise in the markets. A physical cash shortage prompted the Norwegian Refugee Council to replace cash assistance with vouchers. Meanwhile, authorities monopolize some markets and essential foods such as corn, wheat flour, sugar and salt are only sold through security approvals, according to Hassan. Meanwhile, in southwest Sudan, residents of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, rely on growing crops, but agricultural lands are shrinking due to fighting and lack of farming resources. Hawaa Hussein, a woman who has been displaced in El Serif camp since 2004, told the AP that they benefit from the rainy season but they're lacking essential farming resources such as seeds and tractors to grow beans, peanuts, sesame, wheat, and weika — dried powdered okra. Ms Hussein, a grandmother living with eight family members, said her family receives a food parcel every two months, containing lentils, salt, oil, and biscuits. Sometimes she buys items from the market with the help of community leaders. 'There are many families in the camp, mine alone has five children, and so aid is not enough for everyone … you also can't eat while your neighbor is hungry and in need,' she said. El Serif camp is sheltering nearly 49,000 displaced people, the camp's civic leader Abdalrahman Idris told the AP. Since the war began in 2023, the camp has taken in over 5,000 new arrivals, with a recent surge coming from the greater Khartoum region, which is the Sudanese military said it took full control of in May. 'The food that reaches the camp makes up only 5 per cent of the total need. Some people need jobs and income. People now only eat two meals, and some people can't feed their children,' he said. In North Darfur, south of El Fasher, lies ZamZam camp, one of the worst areas struck by famine and recent escalating violence. An aid worker with the Emergency Response Rooms previously based in the camp who asked not to be identified in fear of retribution for speaking with the press, told the AP that the recent wave of violence killed some and left others homeless. Barely anyone was able to afford food from the market as a pound of sugar costs 20,000 Sudanese pounds ($33) and a soap bar 10,000 Sudanese pounds ($17). The recent attacks in ZamZam worsened the humanitarian situation and he had to flee to a safer area. Some elderly men, pregnant women, and children have died of starvation and the lack of medical treatment, according to an aid worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he's fearful of retribution for speaking publicly while living in an area controlled by one of the warring parties. He didn't provide the exact number of those deaths. He said the situation in Zamzam camp is dire—'as if people were on death row.' Yet A.H. finished his poem with hope: 'When people clashed and death filled the city squares,' A.H. wrote, 'you, Koro, were a symbol of life and a title of loyalty.'
The Guardian
3 days ago
- The Guardian
‘We don't want to stay here': UN accused of abandoning refugees in Niger
There is no shade from the sun nor protection from sandstorms in the deserts of Niger and so, for almost 300 days, the refugees stranded there have stood in protest with a single message: 'We don't want to stay here.' About 15km (8 miles) from the nearest town of Agadez, the 2,000 refugees in the camp feel they have been isolated from the world, kept out of sight and earshot and abandoned by those they feel should be helping them – the Nigerien government, the EU and the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR. Many of the refugees have fled conflict in Sudan, but found their attempts to reach safety in Europe thwarted after being pushed back by north African countries paid by the EU to prevent people crossing the Mediterranean. Fearful, and reluctant to return to their home countries, they have become stranded in Niger. While UNHCR says it does everything it can with the resources it has, the agency has become the focus for refugee frustrations in the camp, where they have little access to medical care or education. From July, they will no longer receive food aid. 'UNHCR's role is very weak and they treat us without much humanity; they have little role in protecting us, which makes us vulnerable,' says Abdulmalik, a Sudanese man who says he has been in the camp for more than seven years. Abdulmalik says there is no access to healthcare and that Nigerien authorities are heavy handed, beating and imprisoning refugees whenever they raise complaints. He himself was imprisoned in 2020 after a protest during which a large part of the Agadez centre burned down. 'We live in a desert, 15km from the city without the most basic necessities of life. This is our suffering,' says Yousef Ismail, another Sudanese refugee who is part of the protests. 'Food was cut off [by UNHCR, at the request of the government] from us in February as punishment. A widowed woman was beaten just because she demanded her rights. In the same month, four refugees died due to the lack of a health centre,' says Ismail. UNHCR has announced that because of funding shortfalls, from next month it will only provide food aid to the most vulnerable refugees in Agadez. Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion A UNHCR official who works in the region, who refused to be named, said they understand the frustrations, but that funding cuts and restrictions from the governments they work with limit the options. They said resettlements happen on an individual basis but the process is slowed because third countries, such as those in Europe, offer very limited numbers of spaces for refugees. Moctar Dan Yaye, from Nigerien NGO Alarme Phone Sahara team, says he understands why the refugees are so frustrated with UNHCR and want to be relocated to safer countries. 'It's normal for people being kept for years, who are not being integrated, to become frustrated and lose patience. UNHCR should use this and push others to help them,' he says. Marc Montany, an activist who supported a refugee protest group in Libya, says UNHCR can often take a patronising approach to refugees and not take their concerns seriously. 'There's a sense of disregard, really not treating them with the sensitivity required for people fleeing war and probably subjected to crimes against humanity,' he says. Jeff Crisp, a former senior UNHCR official, says the agency finds it difficult to respond to discontent. 'It has a tendency to resent what is perceived to be the ingratitude of people that it is trying to help. Some of its staff are quick to label refugee protesters as 'troublemakers'.' Even while the refugees in Niger have been protesting, more have arrived with reports of people being rounded up and deported from north Africa. Alarme Phone Sahara estimated that in April more than 2,000 people were pushed back to Niger from Algeria and almost 800 from Libya. It previously estimated 31,000 were pushed back from Algeria in 2024. 'It's unacceptable seeing people left in the desert. I can see it happen but can't stop it. This is the unfairness of the EU policies – they say they care about human rights but then create these problems,' says Yaye.
