WFP forced to prioritise food deliveries

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has started distributing food aid to thousands of severely malnourished people who are being discovered in areas of Angola now open to aid workers after last month's peace agreement.

A WFP statement on Wednesday said a "frantic crowd" of more than 10,000 people in the remote village of Bunjei, Huila Province, greeted the arrival of 15 WFP trucks carrying food rations which are supposed to last for one month. The vehicles arrived last week loaded with maize, corn soya blend, vegetable oil, salt and sugar. They had travelled 130 km from Huambo along precarious roads to make the delivery.

This is the first aid that the desperate people, mostly women and children, have received for many years, the statement said.

"We are finding people suffering extreme hunger and malnutrition in the interior of the country," said Ronald Sibanda, WFP Country Director for Angola. "WFP is already making arrangements to start feeding programmes in new areas." These include Chipindo, Huila Province, and Sanza Pombo, Uige Province.

Since the recent improvement in security in Angola, WFP is gaining access to a greater number of hungry and malnourished people who have been cut off from help.

However, WFP food supplies for some one million people currently being fed in Angola are running out, with stocks reaching dangerously low levels. This comes at a critical time, just when the number of hungry people is soaring, the agency warned.

"We have no choice but to reduce rations for some groups of people to make sure we can feed others who are more desperate," said Sibanda. "It is absolutely vital that new donations are made urgently."

WFP requires US $52 million in order to cope with both the current and extra caseloads for the next six months, the statement said. With the present stock levels, some essential food commodities will start to run out in June and July, and by September, there will be no food available.