ISTANBUL

The UN World Food Program (WFP) warned Friday that refugees in Ethiopia face worsening hunger as it reduced food rations due to funding shortages.

The food agency was forced to reduce rations for 780,000 refugees in 27 camps across Ethiopia from 60% to 40%, leaving each person with food assistance equivalent to less than 1,000 calories a day, a WFP statement said.

It said only 70,000 refugees who recently fled conflict in neighboring Sudan and South Sudan will keep full rations for six months, as hunger and malnutrition remain high among new arrivals.

“Without more funds, these reductions are just another step towards stopping food distributions completely, putting the lives of those we currently assist at risk,” WFP Ethiopia Country Director Zlatan Milisic warned, adding that the UN agency is making “impossible choices.”

“This isn’t a future risk. It’s happening right now,” Milisic underscored.

“Every ration cut is a child left hungrier, a mother forced to skip meals, a family pushed closer to the edge,” he stressed.

The WFP warned that its specialized food supplies for malnourished children and mothers are running low and could run out by December, risking support for one million malnourished children and pregnant and breastfeeding women without new funding.

The agency “urgently” called for $230 million to sustain operations over six months after donor responses to its April appeal averted a crisis in nutrition support for children and mothers.

Since WFP’s last ration cut in May 2023, the shortfall between humanitarian needs and funding has “only widened.”

The WFP has assisted 4.7 million vulnerable people in Ethiopia since January with food, nutrition, and school meal programs, but funding shortfalls and insecurity, particularly in Amhara, have disrupted its operations.

The agency said it is also working with the Ethiopian government to assist 700,000 people in the drought- and flood-hit southeastern region of Somalia, stretching limited food supplies to maintain full rations.

The WFP faces a spiraling funding crisis after its largest donor, the US, abruptly cut nearly all contributions and dismantled the US aid agency in a move that has devastated humanitarian efforts across the region as part of a wider foreign aid rollback under President Donald Trump.

Washington had been the backbone of WFP relief, providing nearly $4.5 billion in 2024 – more than four times the next-largest donor, Germany – and nearly half of all historic funding.