UN in Algeria warns of severe food crisis in Tindouf camps

The Tindouf camps are experiencing an acute food crisis, prompting the United Nations team in Algeria to make an urgent appeal to the international community to provide the camp residents with food aid.

People living in the Tindouf camps are “at increased risk of food insecurity and malnutrition,” said the UN regional office, painting a bleak picture of the situation inside the camps.

There has been a significant decline in food rations by more than 75%, according to the UN regional office, who added that “the forced reduction of 75% in monthly life-saving rations for the World Food Program is particularly worrisome, as it is less than half of the recommended daily intake of calories per person.”

“Each beneficiary now receives less than 5 kg of rations, compared to 17 kg per person a month.”

“The preliminary results of the joint assessment mission and the nutrition survey conducted six months ago revealed a deterioration in the nutritional status and an increase in the prevalence of life-threatening wasting disease among children aged 6 to 59 months, from 7.6% in 2019 to 10.7% in 2022.”

The United Nations confirmed that “half of children between the ages of 6 and 59 months suffer from anaemia, one in three children is stunted, and only one in three children has received the minimum varied diet they need for healthy growth and development.”

“The United Nations and other humanitarian actors are facing significant funding gaps against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the subsequent global rise in food and fuel prices and the effects of the war in Ukraine. This has profoundly affected all sectors of humanitarian support, alarmingly impeding refugees’ access to food, water, health and nutrition, education and other basic livelihood services.”

“The cost of food assistance has now doubled to $39 million this year, compared to $19.8 million in 2020 and 2021,” said UN Resident Coordinator Alejandro Alvarez.

“International solidarity is critical to reversing the rapid deterioration of the nutrition situation in refugee camps, with Long-term effects on the population, especially children,” said the Algerian UN office.