Rome - The United Nation's World
Food Programme today warned unless it receives immediate new funding for
its Angola emergency aid operation, it will be forced to drastically cutback
food distributions in the war-devastated country.
"We are facing serious shortages
of maize, corn-soya-blend and pulses which are the mainstay of our beneficiaries'
diet," said Ronald Sibanda, WFP Representative in Angola. "We
are not asking for luxuries here, just very basic survival food."
WFP has been struggling to assist more than one million people in urgent need of food. Most have fled fighting in rural areas and have congregated in makeshift camps around the provincial capitals.
The humanitarian community has been trying to provide assistance to these displaced people with varying success. Those who have been resettled are expected to grow their own food and become self-sufficient within at least two harvest cycles. Lack of safe arable land, seeds and tools, however, has slowed this process. In addition, late rains in large areas of the country may negatively impact this coming harvest. Hundreds of thousands of people rely entirely on WFP assistance for survival.
"To make matters worse, people are likely to end up eating the seeds they're supposed to plant if they have no other source of food," said Sibanda. "Right now they don't have enough food to eat."
WFP has received approximately 60 percent of projected needs for this year. As a result, WFP has only been able to distribute 12,300 tonnes of food per month instead of the 17,500 tonnes needed. The number of beneficiaries has been cut by 30 percent, from the targeted one and a half million to just one million.
"In an emergency, hungry people should be receiving a minimum of 2,100 kilo calories per person each day," said Sibanda. "In general, we have been able to provide only 1,800 kilo calories. If there are no additional contributions made in the next few weeks, we will have to reduce distributions even further by the end of January, perhaps only assisting the severely malnourished in therapeutic feeding centers."
On November 29, the humanitarian aid organisations working in Angola presented a coordinated appeal to the international donor community. As part of the appeal, WFP asked for $155 million to meet the food aid needs for the country in 2001.
"We are hopeful that the international donor community will come to the aid of these vulnerable people," said Sibanda. "Speed is of the essence. We must have these pledges by the new year."
WFP is the United Nations' front-line agency in the fight against global hunger. In 1999, WFP fed more than 89 million people in 82 countries including most of the world's refugees and internally displaced people.
For more information please contact:
Francis Mwanza, WFP/Rome, +39-06-65132602,
e-mail:francis.mwanza@wfp.org
Maria Flynn, WFP/Angola, Tel. +244-2-310581, e-mail:maria.flynn@wfp.org
Brenda Barton, WFP/Nairobi, Tel+254-2-622594, e-mail: brenda.barton@wfp,org
Abby Spring, WFP/New York, Tel. +1-212-963-5196, e-mail:springa@un.org
Christiane Berthiaume, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41-22-917-8564, e-mail:christiane.berthiaume@wfp.org