Help still needed to stave off hunger

An emergency programme to help the most vulnerable of 30,000 Cape Verdeans threatened by hunger remains underfunded, WFP said on Tuesday. The UN agency, which appealed for US $1.2 million for the programme more than a month ago, said it had received just 50 percent of the food it required for the West African archipelago. "Hunger is rapidly increasing amid deteriorating living conditions in Cape Verde," said Sonsoles Ruedas, WFP's representative in Praia. WFP launched its appeal after the Cape Verde government made its first request for emergency food aid in over 20 years. Cape Verde traditionally suffers from food insecurity, only producing 10 percent of its population's needs. However, the situation worsened this year after the archipelago registered a 23-percent drop in food production in 2001. As a result, food shortages have hit six of the country's 10 islands, in particular the two largest and most populous ones, Santiago and Santo Antao. About 30,000 of the 400,000 Cape Verdeans are threatened by hunger. Many, mostly women, have resorted to selling sand, a practice which is environmentally unsustainable and has already seriously damaged most of the local beaches and allowed salt water to infiltrate once fertile land, WFP said. It said its food aid targeted the most vulnerable families, including women, the handicapped and elderly people who are unable to work. WFP also warned that many families had already used up their seed reserves and had nothing left to plant. Prior to the emergency operation, WFP was already running a four-year school feeding project in Cape Verde, providing meals for some 100,000 children at a cost of around US $6 million.