Food aid for displaced people in Casamance

Some 4,600 internally displaced persons in Casamance, southern Senegal, have been receiving food aid since 13 December, the ICRC said. The emergency distribution, conducted by the Senegalese Red Cross and the ICRC, is the fourth this year for displaced persons in Senegal. The beneficiaries are from nine villages in Casamance, where separatist rebels have been fighting against the state for 17 years. The distribution is being carried out at a time when people are placing their hopes for peace in negotiations due on 26 December between the Senegalese government and the separatist Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance, ICRC said.