Full rations for refugees to resume

Dar es Salaam. The World Food Programme (WFP) yesterday announced the resumption of full rations to refugees in Tanzania in coming months.

WFP country representative Michael Dunford said: “This is a very positive move as you know refugees wholly rely on WFP for their food requirements.”

He was speaking after the ceremonial grant signing between WFP Tanzania and the USAID Food for Peace.

That brings the overall amount received from the US by the latter this year to $21.3 million.

It will be the first time the refugees to receive their full daily requirements since February 2017. The US contribution to the WFP comes after in September this year the Irish Embassy in Tanzania provided an aid package of Sh2.6 billion to the WFP Tanzania amid news that refugees programmes were at risk of being cut as funding crisis loomed, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The US chargé d’affaires in Tanzania, Ms Inmi Patterson, said more needs to be done to restore normalcy in refugee programmes. She said in Tanzania, nearly 300,000 refugees, many of them women and children, had fled instability, conflict and violence, in search for a safe haven. “These refugees remain dependent on outside help and assistance,” she said, “and the American people have been there where help is needed.”

The USAID contribution to the WFP is expected to go beyond the refugees, beyond nutritional and humanitarian requirements. Ms Patterson said refugees were dependent on the communities in which they live and efforts to support refugees demand a focus on local communities as well. “That’s why this funding will be used to purchase locally grown maize and beans, driving both humanitarian support in the country as well as local agriculture and economic development.”