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Madagascar

UN to launch emergency food airlift for Madagascar

Rome (dpa) - The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) will launch Friday its first airlift operation aimed at delivering emergency food rations to victims of flooding in Madagascar.

WFP, which acts as the U.N.'s front-line agency in the fight against hunger, said Wednesday its relief efforts will target tens of thousands of people left destitute by cyclones Eline and Gloria, which swept through the East African island two weeks before wreaking havoc in nearby Mozambique.

More than half a million people living in Madagascar's most remote areas need emergency relief supplies, WFP said.

The agency plans to dispatch by helicopter 25 metric tons of emergency rations consisting of rice, beans and sugar to some 30,000 people in the coastal town of Mahanoro, one of the worst affected areas by floods.

dpa nr eg

Copyright (c) 2000 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 03/08/2000 10:09:09

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