WFP distributes food to over 54,000

The World Food Programme (WFP) distributed more than 660 mt of food to 54,300 beneficiaries in Liberia during the period 25 April - 5 May, the agency said in its emergency report on Friday.

The beneficiaries included refugees, internally displaced persons, malnourished people under the Supplementary and Therapeutic Feeding Centres (SCF and TFC) and others in the framework of institutional feeding programmes and children in emergency school feeding programmes, WFP said.

In view of the ongoing fighting in Liberia, the arrival in Guinea of some 3,500 new refugees mainly from Gbarnga area was reported on 13 May, WFP said. WFP, UNHCR and the German technical assistance agency GTZ conducted an assessment mission in Beta, in Guinea's Yomou district where most of the refugees had gathered.

The refugees did not show signs of severe malnutrition , WFP said, adding that it would start distributing food while UNHCR initiated their transfer. Another 5,000 to 7,000 persons supposedly in Liberia could be on the move towards Guinea.

In neighbouring Sierra Leone, UNHCR had planned for an influx of 40,000 Liberian refugees in the course of 2002, WFP reported. There are currently more than 15,000 refugees in camps, it noted.

Meanwhile in Cote d'Ivoire on 12 May some 300 newly arrived Liberian refugees were registered in Gbinta on the main border crossing point with Liberia near Danane, after fleeing hostilities in Liberia's Gbarnga area. A total of 10,755 refugees had arrived in Cote d'Ivoire since May 2001.

According to the agency, it was too early to assess whether the increase in hostilities in Liberia would lead more people to flee to Cote d'Ivoire since it takes several days to travel from the areas affected by fighting to the border.