United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (L) and Rwandan Minister of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs Jeanne d'Arc de Bonheur (R) visit Gihembe Refugee Camp in Gicumbi District in northern Rwanda, on April 8, 2018. Grandi promised on Sunday to find ways to address food issues facing Congolese refugees in Rwanda by engaging with other partners. (Xinhua/Stringer)
KIGALI, April 8 (Xinhua) -- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi on Sunday promised to find ways to address food issues facing Congolese refugees in Rwanda by engaging with other partners.
"We are going to experiment new approaches. We are going to talk to World Food Program about food aid," Grandi told journalists after visiting Gihembe Refugee Camp, in Gicumbi district in northern Rwanda.
He said there is need to further empower Rwandan government efforts to help refugees, adding that the need to be given opportunity to access work and other services.
Refugees who spoke to the media cited nutritional challenges as the main problem, saying families have only one meal a day.
Gihembe refugee camp hosts about 12,000 Congolese refugees, according to Rwanda's Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs (MIDIMAR).
MIDIMAR minister Jeanne d'Arc de Bonheur said the lasting solution lies in empowering refugees to sustain themselves through ways such as equipping them with life skills to create jobs until peace returns to their country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Grandi, who arrived in Rwanda from the DRC, is expected to travel on to Burundi and Tanzania before winding down the trip.
His visit followed protests at Kiziba Refugee Camp in Karongi District in western Rwanda, which hosts thousands of DRC refugees, over reduced food rations.
The protests happened after the World Food Program decided to cut food assistance to all refugees hosted in Rwanda by 25 percent, due to funding shortage, according a Rwandan government statement issued in February.
