French cash boosts WFP work in the north

France has made a multi-million-franc donation to help the World Food Program (WFP) provide food and nutritional supplies to some 55,000 malnourished children in the North and Far North regions.

Both regions where humanitarian needs in almost every aspect of life have been growing over the past several years, have the highest number of malnourished children in the country.

“The situation of food and nutritional security has been exacerbated by multiple shocks including the influx of refugees from the Central African Republic and Nigeria and growing insecurity throughout the northern regions,” the WFP office in Yaounde said in a statement.

France is providing about CFA260 billion to help alleviate the problem among children bellow the age of five suffering from moderate acute malnutrition. The amount is the first installment of what the French have planned for this year, WFP said.

“We particularly grateful to the French government and people for its unrelenting support to WFP,” said Jacques Roy, WFP resident representative in Cameroon. “I must also salute the shared ambition of France and the WFP to strengthen their collaboration in the fight against malnutrition and to improve the food security of the most vulnerable communities in Cameroon.”

WFP’s current work in the northern regions includes delivering assistance to Nigerian and Central African refugees, people displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency and other events in the Far North and vulnerable local communities. But the response has remained underfunded.

“At this point, WFP, which is entirely funded by voluntary contributions, has received only half of the resources needed for its response in Cameroon,” the Program said in a statement. “Additional resources are needed to permit the WFP respond to urgent nutritional and food needs that are essential for all of the vulnerable population.”