WFP approves emergency operation for refugees, IDPs

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has approved a US $106-million emergency operation to feed 1.8 million refugees and Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in five West African countries, the agency said on Friday. As a result of a decade of civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone, "hundreds of thousands of people in the region have been forced to leave their homes and are either refugees or IDPs with little or no access to food and most can only survive with international support," according to Paul Ares, the WFP regional manager, said. The one-year operation which starts in July will provide 173,000 mt of emergency food to people affected by war in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. With the newly approved operation, WFP will continue feeding Liberian and Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana until they are repatriated. IDPs in Sierra Leone will continue to receive WFP help until June 2000. The UN agency will also support reconstruction efforts to help repatriated refugees and IDPs resettle in their own countries, Ares said. In Liberia, help will be given to reconstruct schools, rebuild roads and bridges and make large areas of the country accessible to aid agencies. In Sierra Leone, WFP will "seek to reach tens of thousands of people cut off from humanitarian assistance".