UNITED NATIONS, March 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Insufficient funding has forced the World Food Program (WFP) to reduce rations to 230,000 Somali and Sudanese refugees in northeast Kenya, the UN agency said Tuesday in a statement.

    Meanwhile, the agency is struggling to fill a 170 million U.S. dollars shortfall in its operations to feed 3.5 million Kenyans affected by severe drought.

    "Our lack of funding has given us little choice. Starting this week, the refugees will be receiving a food ration equivalent to 1,750 kilocalories per day, that's a 20 percent decrease in their daily intake," WFP Kenya Country Director Tesema Negash was quoted as saying.

    "This cut will enable us to extend the limited food currently available over the next few months."

    Without fresh pledges, WFP will run out of pulses this month, cereals and vegetable oil in May, and corn soya blend in June. WFP requires 5 million dollars to provide adequate rations for refugees between now and July and an additional 14 million dollars until the end of the year.

    "Given the escalation in needs across much of the Horn of Africa due to regional drought, donors are already stretched. If these ration cuts for refugees continue, we may see not only increasing insecurity within and around the camps as people clash over limited resources, but also rising malnutrition rates -- which are already unacceptably high," Negash warned.

    Last week, WFP said the death toll among 3.5 million Kenyans in need of emergency assistance could rise in the coming months unless donations to head off a disaster arrived soon. That operation is 75 percent underfunded. Enditem