The European Union has granted €1.3 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to «treat and prevent malnutrition among Sahrawi refugee children and women in five camps located around Tindouf in Algeria», WFP said in a communiqué released Tuesday. In its statement, the food-assistance branch of the United Nations recalled that its latest «nutrition survey found that global acute malnutrition rates among Sahrawi refugee children under five reached 7.6 percent in 2019 compared to 4.7 percent in 2016». «Half of children under five and half of women aged 15 - 49 suffer from anaemia», it added. The organization explained that the new funding comes in addition to a €4 million EU contribution granted earlier in 2019 to «cover basic food needs of thousands of Sahrawi refugee families». For the record, the EU is «the largest donor to WFP's work supporting Sahrawi refugees in Algeria, covering 30 percent of the 2019 funding requirements for this operation», the same source concluded.
