The World Food Programme (WFP) has begun distributing food to nearly 900,000 refugees in Ethiopia following an improvement in its refugee operations.

Families living in refugee camps, including new arrivals who have fled Sudan, are receiving food parcels for the first time since WFP suspended food distributions in June following reports of large-scale diversions.

Resuming food assistance for refugees is vital as around 35,000 people who have fled from Sudan to Ethiopia in the past six months urgently require food assistance, while Ethiopia hosts a further 850,000 refugees, mostly from Somalia, South Sudan, and Eritrea.

Latest hunger data show that refugee food security has deteriorated in the past months, leading to increased malnutrition, heightened tensions around the camps, and even unsafe journeys over borders.

“WFP teams and our partners have been working around the clock to ensure we can get food to those who need it most,” Valerie Guarnieri, the agency’s Assistant Executive Director, said in a statement. “Food is a lifeline for refugees living in unimaginably hard conditions, and it’s a relief that we now have measures in place to resume vital support.”

Distributions will resume in seven regions, providing refugees with cereals, pulses, vegetable oil, and salt. Others may receive part of their entitlement as cash assistance.

The resumption follows major reforms in camps across Ethiopia.

Meanwhile, 24 warehouses in refugee camps are now exclusively managed by the WFP, while refugees will now be digitally enrolled for support through the Global Distribution Tracking Tool operated by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

Feedback and reporting systems for refugees have also been improved, and WFP has trained additional non-government organisations to manage food distributions.

WFP has made progress in testing and implementing measures needed to resume food distributions for millions of food-insecure Ethiopians, including working directly with communities to identify and target the most vulnerable people and digitally register them for assistance.

(NAN)