Chahid Al Hafed (Sahrawi refugee camps), May 10, 2018 (SPS) - The Sahrawi Red Crescent made Wednesday an “urgent” appeal to humanitarian organizations and donor countries to meet the needs of the Sahrawi refugees faced these months to a substantial decrease in the order of 40% of the necessary aid.
According to the principle secretary to the Sahrawi Red Crescent Mohamed Amine Boukhers, the aid allocated by donor countries and international organizations “has continued to decline in the past few years because of the worsening of the global conflicts notably in the region of the Sahel and in the countries of the Middle East (Syria and Yemen), causing new needs in food aid and medicines.”
Speaking in a meeting with a delegation of parliamentarians and representatives of organizations of the Algerian civil society, the Sahrawi official underlined a drop in the financial aid granted annually notably by the United States from 10 million to 6 million Euros, by the European Union from 15 to 9 million Euros, by the European Community Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) and that granted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), dropping from 8 to 6 million Euros.
The drop in this financial aid led, according to Boukhers, to a lack of food ration per person while the number of refugees who need to be cared for is currently about 173,600 cases, according to census carried out recently by the Sahrawi authorities and UN agencies.
Food aid destined to thousands of refugee persons includes currently only basic foodstuffs, he added.SPS
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