WFP to feed Central African refugees in Cameroon

YAOUNDE, Aug 2 (Reuters) The World Food Programme (WFP) will start distributing 3,000 tonnes of food this week in Cameroon to 26,000 refugees who fled civil war in neighbouring Central African Republic, officials said.

Aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Tuesday children among the refugees were suffering ''alarming'' malnutrition and needed immediate aid.

The WFP signed an agreement with the Cameroonian government on Wednesday. Food distribution is expected to last six months.

''The food distribution should begin before the end of the week,'' said WFP spokesman Marcus Prior, adding the UN agency had made this a priority and had temporarily diverted aid from camps in east Chad and development projects in Cameroon.

According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, there were 21,000 Central African refugees in Cameroon at the end of 2006 and a further 5,000 arrived since then. An influx of 4,000 more refugees are expected before the end of the year.

In the absence of camps, they live among the local population in remote localities in the East, Adamawa and North provinces.

According to MSF, about 4 percent of refugee children aged between 6 months and 5 years had severe acute malnutrition and mortality rates were three to seven times above the emergency threshold.

The situation was being aggravated by attacks by rebels along Cameroon's border with the Central African Republic which are hampering efforts to aid those who fled violence in the region.

The Central African Republic has suffered decades of instability and military coups since it won independence from France in 1960.

Humanitarian agencies estimate about 290,000 Central Africans have been forcibly displaced in the last 18 months, including 78,000 who have crossed into Cameroon, Chad and Sudan.

REUTERS SAM BST0442