The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) on Wednesday launched cash transfers to assist internally displaced people (IDPs), refugees, and host families in Foni Kansala (West Coast region), as the conflict in the Senegalese Calamance region has led to cross-border displacement.
The operation targets 1,200 households – approximately 10,000 women, men, and children – with each household receiving 2,330 Gambian Dalasis (USD 45) per month from April to June 2022.
This assistance will help conflict-affected families meet their basic food needs and replenish destroyed or lost food stocks.
“Families affected by this armed conflict were already suffering from a difficult food security situation due to the poor harvest of last year, the socioeconomic fallout of COVID-19 pandemic, and the rising prices.
Many of them have lost their sources of income”, said Yasuhiro Tsumura, WFP Representative and Country Director in The Gambia.
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“Urgent support is needed to provide humanitarian relief and protect livelihoods for the most vulnerable families, allowing for a faster recovery from the impacts of the multifaceted crisis.”
This assistance comes at a time when the level of food insecurity and malnutrition is already very high in the country.
The latest Cadre Harmonize report released in November 2021 has revealed the worst level of food insecurity and malnutrition in The Gambia in the past five years with 207,000 people, approximately 8.6 per cent of the population, expected to face acute food insecurity starting in June 2022.
The emergency response is being delivered in coordination with the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) and The Gambia Red Cross Society (GRCC). Targeted families were identified through a joint assessment conducted by WFP and UN partners in support of the Gambian Government.
Overall, in The Gambia, WFP supports the Government in fighting hunger and malnutrition through crisis response, school feeding, nutrition program, resilience building initiatives, and national capacity strengthening.
To ensure the continued life-saving and resilience building operations over the next six months, WFP urgently requires additional USD 9.8 million.