Funding Cuts Leave Kenyan Refugee Camps in Crisis as US Aid Dwindles

Kakuma, Kenya –July/ 19/2025
Global humanitarian organizations are grappling with severe funding shortages following the Trump administration’s decision to slash U.S. foreign aid, including cuts to USAID and other relief programs. In Kenya, home to two of Africa’s largest refugee settlements, the impact has been devastating.

At the Kakuma refugee camp in northwestern Kenya, the World Food Programme (WFP) warehouses once stocked with life-saving supplies now stand nearly empty. A few sacks of lentils from the U.S
are among the last remaining resources for the camp’s 300,000 refugees, most of whom fled violence and famine in South Sudan, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Aid Cuts Trigger Food Shortages
Since the U.S., WFP’s largest donor, halted funding in February, food supplies have dwindled to just 25% of normal levels. With no new shipments arriving, the WFP has been forced to implement drastic ration cuts. By August, more than a third of Kakuma’s refugees will receive no food assistance at all.

Regina Ngole, a South Sudanese refugee and mother of seven, shows the grim reality of the crisis. Her family’s WFP provided rice, oil, and lentils for June and July ran out weeks ago. Now, they survive on foraged leaves. Her two-year-old child has been hospitalized multiple times for severe malnutrition.

“I don’t know how we will eat tomorrow,” she says, as a community health worker checks on her child’s fragile condition.

A Broader Humanitarian Crisis
While some refugees have started small businesses or found work within the camp, the vast majority depend entirely on food aid. The nearby Dadaab refugee camp, hosting over 200,000 mostly Somali refugees, faces similar shortages.

Humanitarian groups warn that without urgent funding, malnutrition rates already high among children could spike further, leading to increased mortality and instability.

“The suspension of U.S. aid has created a gap we cannot fill” says a WFP official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We need immediate international support to prevent a catastrophe.”

Global Implications
The cuts reflect the Trump administration’s broader retreat from global humanitarian leadership, leaving other donors struggling to compensate. Experts warn that neglecting refugee crises could exacerbate regional instability and migration pressures.

Source :Africannews.com

Emebet Asefa,correspondent Addis Abeba ,Ethiopia