22 July 2009: The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, has allocated some $1.5 million to boost emergency programmes to help some 90,000 Saharawi refugees in Algeria.

 An assessment carried out earlier this year showed that malnutrition rates among the beneficiaries are at eighteen percent, and that more than half the women in the camps near Tindouf suffered from anemia.  Though the programmes through which the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) provides the refugee population with food assistance are relatively well funded, poor funding for complementary programmes in the shelter sector jeopardize the refugees’ well-being.  The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has appealed for some $11.6 million to help Saharawi refugees in Algeria, but only 23 percent or $2.66 million has been received to date.  UNHCR’s efforts seek to help some 90,000 refugees in camps in Tindouf, which lies in Algeria’s southwest, include programmes to maintain food delivery systems and provide complementary food items to meet the refugees’ nutritional needs.