Critical funding shortfall threatens vital UN food aid for 53,000 hungry Djiboutians

A critical shortage of funds will force the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to cut off vital food aid rations for 53,000 people in Djibouti beginning next month in a country where malnutrition rates among children under five are already well over the international emergency threshold, the agency warned today.

“It’s vital that we get donations now,” WFP country Director Benoit Thiry. “The longer it takes to receive donations, the longer it will take to get the feeding programmes back on track.

“Malnutrition among children younger than five is in fact a silent emergency in Djibouti, but we just don’t have the funds to continue providing food for the most vulnerable,” he added.

Overall the agency needs $6 million for operations in the small Horn of Africa until December, and $1 million immediately. Unless new contributions arrive, WFP will be forced to stop distributing food to more than 47,000 pastoralist drought victims in April, and from May, will no longer be able to feed some Somali 6,000 refugees who rely entirely on food aid.

Preliminary results of a new survey show acute malnutrition in Djibouti has risen to 20.4 per cent, above the emergency threshold of 15 per cent, compared to 17.9 per cent in 2002. Severe acute malnutrition stood at 7.1 per cent against 5.9 per cent in 2002.

“Although these are preliminary findings and need to be validated, they provide a snapshot of the impact of the drought on household food security at the peak of the lean season,” Mr. Thiry said. The dry season begins in two months’ time.

A recent report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network warned that thousands of households would run short of food in the coming months, with livestock in some inland areas already showing signs of stress. An emergency WFP food security assessment in September showed that continued aid to drought victims is imperative. Recurring droughts have stretched to the limit the traditional survival strategies of many pastoralists.

The assessment noted that aid would progressively shift from free food distribution towards food for work programmes designed to help improve their food security.

Djibouti is classified as both a least developed country and a low-income, food-deficit country. Some 60 per cent of the population is unemployed. In 2006, WFP fed 70,000 people, including 10,000 school children, and 2,000 children orphaned by HIV/AIDS as well as people living with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis patients.