The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) will have to reduce or interrupt some of its aid activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) due to serious resource constraints, a UN spokesman said here on Tuesday.

“WFP, which is funded entirely by voluntary contributions, says it urgently needs 75 million U.S. dollars to continue its operations through May 2014,” Martin Nesirky said at a daily briefing.

“In North and South Kivu and in Orientale provinces, some 500, 000 food-insecure displaced people will be affected by the funding crisis,” he said.

He said the provision of daily hot meals to thousands of schoolchildren was also in jeopardy, as was life-saving nutritional support to some 180,000 malnourished children, pregnant women and nursing mothers across the country.

In the past six months, funding shortages have forced the WFP to cut by half the rations distributed to displaced people in North Kivu province, said the spokesman.

According to the WFP, since the 2011 presidential election, security has dramatically deteriorated in the east of the DRC, with rebel activity widespread in much of the region. There are currently 2.7 million internally displaced people in the country.

 

 

One out 10 children suffers from acute malnutrition and 6.3 million people are facing hunger and need food assistance in the Central African country, said the agency.