Malnutrition in the refugee camp in Kenya Kakuma after abbreviations of US assistance

Hundreds of thousands of people “slowly starve” in Kenyan refugee camps after reducing US funding has reduced food rations to their lowest levels, an employee of the United Nations told the BBC.

The impact is extremely visible at a hospital in the scattered Kakuma camp in the northwestern part of the East African nation. It is home to approximately 300,000 refugees who have fled struggles in countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Children who have hired fill 30 beds at the Kakuma Amusate Hospital, staring at visitors, as they receive treatment for severe acute malnutrition.

One baby, Ellen, is barely moving. Parts of her skin are wrinkled and peeling, leaving angry spots of red – the result of malnutrition, a doctor tells the BBC.

Beyond the trail is a nine -month -old baby, James, Agnes Avila’s eighth child, a refugee from northern Uganda.

“Food is not enough, my children eat only once a day. If there is no food, what do you feed them?” she asks.

James, Helen and thousands of other refugees in Kakuma depend on the UN World Food Program (WFP) for vital support.

But the agency had to drastically reduce its help operations in many countries after President Donald Trump announced extensive foreign aid programs in the United States earlier this year as part of its America First policy.

The United States had provided about 70% of WFP operations funding in Kenya.

WFP says that as a result of the cuts, the agency had to reduce refugees’ rations to 30% of the minimum recommended amount that a person should eat in order to stay healthy.

“If we have a prolonged situation where this is what we can manage, then we generally have a slow fasting population,” says Felix Oil, head of WFP’s refugee operations in Kenya.

Outside the Cakuma Food Distribution Center, the Sun is hit by dry, dusty security officers and security officers manage the queues of refugees.

They are kept at the Holding Center and then an inspection area. Aid staff scan the refugee cards and take their fingerprints before they take them to collect their rations.

Mukuni Bililo Mami, a mother of two, brought Jerican to collect cooking oil, along with lentil and rice bags.

“I am grateful to receive this a little (food), but that is not enough,” says the 51-year-old who arrived at the camp 13 years ago from South Kivus, a region in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

D -mom says that refugees used “eat well” – three meals a day. But now, when the rations are 30% of their usual amount, the food given to her is not enough to endure a month, let alone the two for which she was asked to stretch her.

It is also affected by another victim of abbreviations – money transfer.

Until this year, the UN was giving about $ 4 million (3 million British pounds) in cash directly to refugees at Kenya’s camps every month, designed to allow families to buy basic deliveries.

D -mom, who is a diabetic, uses the money to buy food, such as vegetables that are more suitable for her diet than cereals distributed at the distribution center.

She is now forced to eat what is available.

She also uses the money to start a vegetable garden and rear chicken and ducks she sells to other refugees in the market.

But the termination of money transfer, locally known as “Bamba Chakula”, meant that the market was collapsed.

Traders like Ibrahim, who is from Nuba Mountain in Sudan, are no longer able to expand the credit lines of fellow refugees.

The 42-year-old manages a retail shop at the local shopping center. He says his customers, who cannot buy food now, at times camp at his store all day, begging for help.

“They will tell you,” My children haven’t eaten all day, “says Ibrahim.

Elsewhere in the Campuma camp, 28-year-old Agnes Livio serves food for her five young sons.

They live in a cabin, which is approximately 2 m (6 feet 6 inches) by 2 m made of corrugated iron sheets.

G -ja Livio serves the food in a large plate that everyone will share. This is the first meal of the family of the day – at 1400.

“We used to get a mess for breakfast, but no longer. So, the kids have to wait until the afternoon to eat their first meal,” says Gi Livio, who escaped from South Sudan.

Back at Amusate Hospital, medicines feed a number of malnourished babies through tubes.

Three young children and their mothers are written – back in the community where the food is scarce and the conditions are deteriorating.

And the prospect of more funding is not very promising, and unless things change over the next two months, refugees are starving, August comes.

“This is a really sharp situation,” admits to the ocec.

“We have some signals from some or two donors to support this monetary component.

“But remember that very kind and generous provides us with over 70% – so if you still miss 70% … These perspectives are not good.”