Funds shortfall threatens 500,000 in Myanmar and Nepal – UN food agency

Facing a shortfall in donations, the United Nation's World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that its operations to feed 100,000 refugees in Nepal and nearly 400,000 people in Myanmar would be severely hampered unless contributions from international donor countries are secured by the end of the month.

To date, WFP has received only 9 per cent of the resources needed to feed 100,000 Bhutanese refugees who are confined to seven camps in Nepal without access to official employment or land for domestic farming and entirely dependent on the agency’s food rations to meet their minimum nutritional needs.

Without an additional $7.8 million, a disruption in the distribution of the rice will occur in August, followed shortly thereafter by shortages of other food.

“After 12 years of uninterrupted supply of full rations – and given the high level of dependency on food aid in the camps – a break in food distribution in August could very well lead to social unrest and threaten any progress the Nepalese and Bhutanese governments might make in solving the refugee crisis," WFP country director Erika Joergensen said. "It is critical that further pledges are made immediately."

In northern Myanmar, with only half of needed funding accounted for, WFP's operation assisting nearly 400,000 vulnerable individuals, many of whom have recently been repatriated from refugee camps in Bangladesh, is also at risk of disruption.

"There simply are not enough funds or supplies to meet all of our needs and as a result, several principal projects, including WFP's school feeding programme, have already been affected," WFP's senior emergency co-ordinator in Myanmar, Bradley Guerrant, said.