United Nations (UN) World Food Programme (WFP) has announced a move to provide midmorning snacks to more than 40,000 children in Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria.
WFP made the announcement in the wake of a $478,000 contribution from the government of France.
The donation, according to a WFP statement, will enable the UN programme to provide each child attending schools and nurseries in the camps with nutritious gofio porridge made from locally produced flour, dried skimmed milk, vitamin-enriched oil and sugar.
WFP also noted that while the porridge will replace the glass of dried skimmed milk it previously provided for school children, it will continue to distribute a daily 50g packet of high energy biscuits every school day.
‘This is a great way to support children in their education and improve their health. Both are so important in the post-pandemic world’, WFP Representative and Country Director in Algeria, Imed Khanfir, said in the statement.
Since 1975, Algeria has been hosting a large proportion of the Sahrawi population in refugee camps near the city of Tindouf.
The majority of Sahrawi population are understood to be dependent on humanitarian aid to sustain basic needs such as access to food, water, and shelter.
Accommodated in five refugee camps, the needy families rely primarily on WFP assistance for food. Employment and livelihood opportunities are also very limited.
Western Sahara is a disputed territory in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa controlled by two governmental authorities.
About 20 percent of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, while the remaining 80 percent is occupied and administered by neighbouring Morocco.
‘France is very pleased to renew its financial contribution to WFP targeting the Sahrawi refugee children, thus allowing them to continue their education’ the statement quoted the Cooperation and Cultural Affairs Advisor at the French Embassy in Algeria, Ahlem Gharbi, as saying.
Recent tensions over the disputed region have led to severing of diplomatic ties between Algeria and Morocco.
The UN considers Western Sahara a non-self-governing territory in the absence of a final settlement.
Source: WFP
Photo source: EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid
