WFP welcomes Germany's pledge to assist Sahrawi refugees in Algeria

“This multi-year pledge is important as it allows us to plan ahead. Funding predictability and timing are absolutely key for food assistance,” said WFP Representative and Country Director in Algeria Imed Khanfir.

 The World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a multi-year pledge for 2020 and 2021 from the Government of Germany of €1 million (US$1.1 million) each year for its assistance to refugees from Western Sahara in Algeria.

The German Federal Foreign Office’s contribution will allow WFP to cover the basic food needs of the most food-insecure Sahrawi refugees with a monthly food ration that includes cereals (rice, barley, and wheat flour), pulses, vegetable oil, sugar, and fortified blended foods. A part of the contribution will also support the school feeding programme that aims to encourage around 40,000 children in camp schools and kindergartens to enroll and attend class. Each child receives a mid-morning snack that includes nutritious biscuits and milk to fight short-term hunger.

“This multi-year pledge is important as it allows us to plan ahead. Funding predictability and timing are absolutely key for food assistance,” said WFP Representative and Country Director in Algeria Imed Khanfir. “WFP is very grateful to the people and the Government of Germany for their continued support that allows us to assist Sahrawi refugee families and school children.”

Germany has been a key partner to WFP Algeria since 2016, providing US$ 4.7 million over the last years.

"The World Food Programme makes a critical contribution to the assistance of the Sahrawi refugees in Tindouf,” says Ulrike Knotz, Ambassador of Germany to Algeria. “Germany's commitment to multi-year funding is intended to ensure that WFP can continue to rely on the necessary support in this long-term crisis, which has received little public attention. Germany is one of WFP’s top donors in Algeria."

For more than 40 years, the Sahrawi have been living under extremely harsh conditions in the Sahara Desert in southwestern Algeria. Hosted in five refugee camps, near the Algerian town of Tindouf, refugee families rely primarily on WFP assistance for their food needs as employment and livelihood opportunities are limited.

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

(With Inputs from APO)