Thousands of refugees clashed with police this week in a Kenyan refugee camp and clashed with police after receiving news that food allocations would be cut due to funding issues.
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, confirmed that four refugees and local government officials were injured when police intervened in Monday to stop protesters at Kakuma refugee camp.
People living in the camp received a message from the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). Cut to 40% Basic minimum rationing.
There are 300,000 refugees in the camp.mainly from South Sudan, as well as Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia.
WFP has grown in aid budgets for several years as it needs to cut rations in other emergency zones, but it has further collided with President Donald Trump's freeze on US aid spending. More than half of WFP's funds are $9.7 billion. (7.5 billion pounds) 2024.
Camp protesters carried empty cooking pots with signs of seeking more food.
One refugee, Andrew Duffel, received a text telling him that his monthly rations would fall from 4kg to 3kg of cerealthe cooking oil and beans were completely cut off, but said, “I feel ignored and lost because there is no other way to survive.”
Dafir said that after repeated cuts, what they received was already very limited, with the full ration being over 7kg per person per month.
The cash payments given to refugees no longer include beans and oil in the rations, ranging from 650 Kenyan Shillings (about 4 pounds) to 820 shillings, but Daffir said they didn't cover enough food for a month, not a day, and not a day.
He said a new level of food aid is not enough to live, especially for those who didn't have other income to supplement their rations.
He shared a video of what sounded like a bullet with many people who escaped from tear gas. Daffir said one of his friends was hurting them.
“I lost my voice, I was very scared,” Duffel said. “We are forced to be silent. They don't seem to want to hear us.”
Youth Voices from Kakuma, a group of young refugees based in the camp, said that protesters spent hours outside the UNHCR office, but when no one came out to listen to their concerns, some began trying to climb the fence, urging police to intervene.
A Kakuma resident who uploaded a video of the protest to Tiktok said tensions had been building up for months, with water supplies reduced, cash assistance payments reduced, and tensions were rising for refugees needed to pay their children's school fees.
Many of the protesters were carrying empty pots, while others had signs of questioning whether 3kg of cereal would be sufficient. “This is the container they currently use to measure beans and oil, and the other is a rice container. And this is equivalent to your food for a month,” a South Sudan refugee who has an empty cooking pot told the Associated Press.
“Suppose you don't have another income. That's all. Is this enough?”
In a statement, UNHCR said it was “deeply concerned” about the impact of the cut. “Kakuma government security personnel intervened to keep the situation under control. Fortunately, there was no loss of life.
“However, at least four refugees and one local government official have been injured. UNHCR is unable to confirm use of the live round during the demonstration.”
Social Justice Center Working GroupThe Kenyan civil society organization said, “Brutalizing those who flee war, persecution and hunger instead of dealing with the cry of food and water is a height of state-sponsored atrocities.”
Cabinet Secretary At the Ministry of Home Affairs of Kenya, I said it on Tuesday Recent cuts in aid have had a “sudden and serious” impact on Kenya's ability to host 800,000 refugees and asylum seekers.
“The socioeconomic impact on our country will not bearable due to the reduced funding of humanitarian programs by developed countries. Still, turning back on the most vulnerable people is contrary to the shared beliefs of humanity. Therefore, after a little while, it is mandatory for developed countries to bear the economic burden,” Murkomen said.
