Cash-strapped UN agency slashes refugee rations in Malawi: Video
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has significantly reduced its cash assistance to refugees in Malawi and may soon halt the program entirely due to severe funding shortages, according to the agency’s acting country director, Simon Denhere.
The cuts are hitting one of the world’s poorest nations, leaving thousands of refugees in Dzaleka camp in Dowa district, north of the capital Lilongwe, fearing for their survival.
“As you know, the World Food Programme provides cash assistance to refugees and is funded by our development partners. Due to a reduction in donor funding globally, we have had to reduce refugee rations from 75 percent to 50 percent as of February 2025,” Denhere told the AFP.
The situation could worsen, with WFP officials warning that the agency may be forced to entirely suspend cash assistance by May if no new funding is secured.
“Actually, we might even go further to completely halt the cash assistance in May if we don’t receive any further funding,” Denhere added.
For many refugees, the cuts present a dire reality. Joyce Wamuyu, a Rwandan refugee at the Dzaleka camp, voiced her concerns about the looming crisis.
“For the community, we see that this will bring trouble to us and to the leadership. If the WFP doesn’t assist the refugees, there will be a lot of instability in the camp. Many of us don’t have work, and others are just staying here with no means to support ourselves. We don’t know how we will survive,” she said.
The Dzaleka refugee camp, originally designed to accommodate 10,000 people, now hosts more than 50,000 refugees and asylum seekers, primarily from Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
