GENEVA, Switzerland, July 19 (UPI) -- Dwindling rations have led to an increase in violence as families fight over food in refugee camps in western Tanzania, U.N. agencies warned Tuesday.
The U.N. World Food Program and U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees called on international donors to provide $5 million in order to reverse the food shortage and maintain rations at their current level of 65 percent of daily need.
The refuge camps have a shortfall of an estimated 22 million lbs. of food supplies.
Hunger was the leading cause of domestic violence inside the teeming camps, as family members argue over how to distribute their meager rations.
Nearly 400,000 Burundian and Congolese refugees face arrest, rape or physical assault if they attempt to leave the camps to find work, U.N. agencies said. But many refugees risked leaving the camps or returned home in order to survive.
"It is better to be killed in your own country than to die a slow death in the camps from hunger," a Burundian refugee told the UNHCR.
Without international assistance, rations will be cut again in October, said the U.N. agencies.
