Funding is desperately needed to feed a wave of refugees fleeing the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to Burundi, the World Food Program (WFP) said.
The United Nations agency warned on Monday that 70,000 people have fled across the border to neighboring Burundi since Rwanda-backed armed group M23 launched an offensive in January and seized large swaths of territory in eastern DRC.
The influx has raised the total number of people dependent on food aid from WFP in Burundi to 120,000, the United Nations agency stated.
Current funding is only sufficient to sustain operations for 120,000 refugees through June, the WFP, which this month cut rations given to refugees by 50 percent, said. It added that it needs $19.8m in additional funding to maintain support until the end of the year.
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