US Helps WFP Provide Food Assistance To Refugees From Western Sahara In Algeria

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2017-08-10

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed a US$1 million contribution from the United States to support vulnerable refugees from Western Sahara in Algeria on Aug 09. WFP will use the funds to provide staple food items as part of monthly food rations for thousands of refugee families.

For more than 40 years, Sahrawi refugees have been living under extremely harsh conditions in the Sahara Desert in southwestern Algeria. Hosted in five refugee camps near Tindouf, refugee women, men, boys and girls depend entirely on WFP as their primary source of food as employment opportunities are limited.

Thanks to the US contribution, WFP will be able to provide refugees with a diversified monthly food basket that includes rice, barley and wheat flour, pulses (including lentils and yellow-split peas), fortified vegetable oil, sugar and corn soya blend.

“WFP assistance to Sahrawi refugees is indispensable as they depend almost entirely on their monthly rations to secure their families’ food needs,” said WFP Representative in Algeria Romain Sirois. “WFP is extremely grateful for this timely contribution and the continuous support from the US government and people that we receive year after year.”

The US is a key partner and one of the largest donors to WFP in Algeria, having provided more than US$19 million for food assistance since 2013.

WFP has been supporting refugees from Western Sahara in Algeria since 1986. All WFP assistance in Algeria is carried out and monitored in collaboration with national and international organizations to ensure that assistance reaches the people for whom it is intended.

Source:World Food Programme

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