WFP distributes food to displaced people

Some 170,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Guinea Bissau capital, Bissau, will have received 800 mt of rice, peas, vegetable oil and wheat flour by the time WFP ends its current food distribution effort tomorrow (Wednesday), the agency’s regional spokesman, Wagdi Othman, told IRIN today. “It’s a one-off general food distribution,” he said. He noted that these people were trapped in the city without food during recent fighting between loyalist and anti-government troops. Othman, who has just returned from Bissau, said life in the city was gradually returning to normal. However, food is limited in the markets and money is scarce. “Most of the population cannot buy food and is still in need of food aid,” he said. In addition, he said there were still 100,000 IDPs in areas near the capital, such as the town of Safim. There, he said, 60,000 IDPs were living in makeshift camps “almost everywhere in the town”. WFP and its local partner, Caritas, are continuing food distribution in Safim.