Western Sahara 
Sahrawi refugees threatened by hunger

afrol News, 30 August - Some 155,000 refugees from the Moroccan-Sahrawi war, living in Algerian desert camps, are reported to run out of basic alimentation. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) says it can only provide full rations one more month, unless new contributions arrive.

- A serious lack of food aid and insufficient funding threaten Western Saharan refugees living in four isolated quarter-century old camps whipped by desert winds along Algeria's border with Western Sahara, the UN agency yesterday reported from Geneva. 

The 155,000 Sahrawi refugees are almost entirely dependent upon humanitarian aid provided through the WFP and live in remote camps some 2,000 kilometres south of Algeria's Mediterranean coast near the historic oasis town of Tindouf. The four camps, close to the Sahrawi border, have sheltered the majority of the Sahrawi people since Morocco invaded the Spanish ex-colony in 1975.

Unless fresh contributions of food arrive, the WFP reports that "by October the refugees will get only 11 percent of their daily food aid requirements - about 231 kcals for each person - compared to the standard UN ration of flour, pulses, beans, vegetable oil and other items totalling 2,100 kcals daily." 

The WFP requires 8,336 metric tons of food at a cost of US$ 3.7 million, of which 80 percent are cereals, to meet the refugees' food needs up to January 2003. "With the lack of international attention to their plight, obtaining regular contributions of food aid for the Western Saharan refugees is extremely difficult," said the WFP's Daly Belgasmi, director of the agency's Geneva office. 

- Unless we receive aid soon, the drastic reduction in October's food package will have severe consequences on the health of the refugees, particularly for children under five, pregnant women and lactating mothers, he added. 

The UN refugee agency's own budget to care for the Western Saharan refugees in Algeria was also experiencing a cash crunch, with only US$ 1.5 million out of the US$ 4.6 million required so far contributed. While the agency could pool funds to cover part of the gap, overall it had so far received only US$ 688 million of its US$ 800 million annual budget for 2002. 

- The Western Saharan refugees are really experiencing enormous difficulties, said Radhouane Nouicer the North Africa and the Middle East coordinator of the UN refugee agency UNHCR. "Thirty-five percent of the children suffer chronic malnutrition, and 13 percent of the children are acutely malnourished, leading to a high level of stunting among young children." 

Addressing the UN Security Council earlier this year, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers told the body, "Western Sahara is an example of a protracted refugee situation where there are few immediate prospects for durable solutions, and where programmes to assist and protect the refugees remain severely under-funded. This is unacceptable." 

In September, UNHCR and WFP are to conduct a comprehensive nutritional survey of Algeria's refugee population, mostly of Western Sahrawi origin. WFP's relief operation in Algeria has been "facing food shortages and disruptions in its delivery pipeline for some time," the agency admits. . 

Sources: Based on UN and afrol archives

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