Nov. 3 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The non-governmental organization Doctors of the World has highlighted that nearly 180,000 Saharawi refugees are facing a food and health crisis fueled by the rise in food prices due to the war in Ukraine.
The NGO has warned that this increase in prices, the scarce international aid and the 47 years that have passed since the Saharawi population had to take refuge in camps in Algeria due to the Moroccan occupation “are seriously deteriorating” the living and health conditions of these people.
In this sense, Doctors of the World has lamented a decrease in international funding for Saharawi refugees, which has fallen by almost 20 percent in the first six months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, which has aggravated the crises and increased the fragility of the population, especially in terms of food security.
The NGO has indicated that food in these camps depends on the monthly distributions of a basic basket that has been alarmingly reduced in variety and quantity of products in recent months, leaving out products such as rice, gofio or pasta during the month of September. .
In this way, it has specified that this basic basket reaches only 75 percent of the population, despite the fact that the percentage of vulnerable people has already reached 91% of the total population.
For its part, the Saharawi Red Crescent, in charge of distributing food in the camps, has warned that it only has emergency food for two months and has underlined the urgency of responding to this crisis, which could have an impact on all aspects of people’s lives.
Doctors of the World has recalled that data from the United Nations after a survey in February revealed that half of Saharawi children between six and 59 months suffer from anemia, while one in three suffer from stunted growth and only one in three minors get a proper diet.
For this reason, he has asked to increase humanitarian aid to the population in the face of a “forgotten crisis” and has lamented the “devastating damage to the Saharawi refugee population”, while at the same time he has demanded that Spain act in the face of its “historical debt” and ” legal responsibility towards the Saharawi people”.
The former Spanish colony of Western Sahara was occupied by Morocco in 1975 despite the resistance of the Polisario Front, with whom it remained at war until 1991, when both parties signed a ceasefire with a view to holding a self-determination referendum, but Differences over the preparation of the census and the inclusion or not of Moroccan settlers have so far prevented its convening.
On November 14, 2020, the Polisario Front declared the ceasefire with Morocco broken in response to a Moroccan military action against Saharawi activists in Guerguerat, in the agreed demilitarized zone, which meant for the Saharawis a violation of the conditions of the agreement. Stop the fire.
