Food supplies dwindling

Food supplies for post-war Angola are dwindling precisely at a time when more food is urgently needed for growing numbers of hungry people, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Wednesday.

WFP urged a rapid response to its expanded food aid operation, due to start in July. The agency needs US $241 million to feed up to 1.5 million people over the next 18 months. Despite WFP's growing activities in Angola, pledges from international
donors have been sporadic.

Angola's April ceasefire has opened up areas of the country that were previously inaccessible, sharply increasing demands for humanitarian assistance. Current WFP food stocks will run out by September for the more than one million people being fed. The number will rise rapidly to 1.5 million people before the end of the year, which also includes the hundreds of thousands of Angolan refugees expected to return home from neighbouring countries, WFP said.

Many people, especially women and children, are in extremely poor condition. "They will face starvation unless food supplies are urgently increased", the agency stressed.

Over recent weeks, WFP has started feeding an extra 120,000 desperately hungry people who were until recently completely cut off from aid due to the war, including families of former UNITA soldiers being demobilized across the country in some 34 so-called quartering areas, WFP said.

WFP expressed concern that as it continues to locate tens of thousands of new beneficiaries, it may not be able to feed them all unless it receives urgently needed supplies. It also warned that significant logistical hurdles must be overcome.

"There are still several locations to be reached, but WFP has to rely on the government of Angola to make emergency infrastructure repairs to make further access possible," said Ronald Sibanda, WFP's Country Director in Angola.

Most of this work must be done before the rainy season starts in September to ensure food can reach the most isolated areas, the WFP statement said.

"Despite the serious constraints imposed by poor access, such as broken bridges and derelict roads and airstrips, we have been able to reach several new locations in order to provide food assistance," said Sibanda, after a visit to the Damba quartering area in northern Malanje Province.