Funding needed to aid Togolese refugees

GENEVA, Switzerland, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Togolese refugees in Benin and Ghana exceed 40,000, but a funding shortfall impairs the United Nations' ability to help, the U.N. Refugee agency says.

Urgent need and donation shortages prompted the U.N. refugee agency to release $1.5 million of its own emergency funds, but it still lacks $1.45 million of the project's $4.7 million budget, said a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees, Jennifer Pagonis, Tuesday at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva.

In Benin, two camps housed 10,000 refugees, while an additional 14,500 sought shelter in local communities. In Ghana, 15,500 refugees reportedly spread out in at least 114 locations over 250 miles, with more than 2,500 Togolese still unregistered.

The UNHCR aid proposal is for emergency health, water, sanitation and education needs of the refugees in addition to alleviating the affects of refugee crowding on host communities.

The April 2005 election results caused an eruption of street violence prompting thousands of Togolese citizens to cross into Ghana and Benin.