A US-based organisation has claimed devastating cuts to food rations threaten refugees in Kenya with famine. 

The US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) said the food reduction affects 700,000 refugees at the Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps and Kalobeyei settlement. 

The cuts are a direct consequence of the withdrawal of life-saving humanitarian assistance by the US and other donor governments, creating critical funding shortages that affect the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and partner agencies. 

As of June, refugees are receiving just 28 per cent of their full in-kind food ration, amounting to only three kilos of rice, one kilo of lentils, and 500ml of cooking oil per person per month, far below the nutritional benchmark recommended by the UN, USCRI said. 

“Simultaneously, all cash-transfer assistance has been halted, eliminating refugees’ ability to purchase essential proteins, vegetables, and supplementary items,” USCRI said in a statement.  

“The situation has become so dire that some refugee mothers have chosen to end their lives rather than witness the starvation of their children.” 

USCRI  said levels of food insecurity in Kenya’s refugee camps are devastatingly high.

“The malnutrition rate among refugee children under five and pregnant or breastfeeding women in Kenya is above 13 per cent,” the group said.  

‘Starving and malnourished’ 

“Starving children now fill hospital beds, severely malnourished, with time running out. Should this continue, refugees in Kenya will face the spectre of a widespread, man-made famine.” 

USCRI President and CEO Eskinder Negash added: “Behind every statistic is a child going hungry, a mother skipping meals so her baby can eat, a teenager forced to abandon school to search for food or work. 

“These are not abstract numbers – they are families who have already fled war, persecution, and unimaginable trauma, only to now face starvation in places they hoped would offer safety. They are now left to languish in open-air prisons.” 

The WFP says it urgently requires $44 million to provide full rations and cash assistance for all refugees in Kenya through August. Without this funding, it warned, even more refugees will starve.