WFP sends 45 mt of food to Bangui's needy

The World Food Programme (WFP) has sent 45 mt of food to two NGOs for distribution to 10,000 people in northern parts of Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), most affected by recent fighting between government and rebel troops, the country director of the UN agency told IRIN on Tuesday. The official, David Bulman, said the Roman Catholic aid agency Caritas and Cooperazione Internationale (Coopi) would distribute the food. "We gained their agreement to give the food exclusively to women, partly to avoid giving multiple rations to single families," he said. "We started the distribution of food assistance, which comprises maize flour, beans, sugar, salt, vegetable oil and protein-enriched flour, and the distribution will continue today," Massimiliano Pedretti, the Representative of Coopi in CAR, told IRIN on Wednesday. The 44,100 kg of food, he said, was delivered to women, children, the handicapped and the elderly. This distribution, due to be completed on Wednesday, constitutes the greater part of a one-week ration for these needy residents. Bulman said the next tasks would be to pre-position food in all other areas of the city in case there was another attack. The WFP and its partners would, he added, continue the distributions to beneficiary institutions in accessible areas such as Bangui EDP, Bangui and Lobaye prefecture, including health centres and the Congolese refugee camp southwest of Bangui. Coopi had reached an area 30 km north of Bangui on Tuesday and, he said, "found a village with many wounded and hungry people". Bulman said that Coopi and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) were expected to lead a medical intervention to the site, and Coopi - on behalf of WFP - would implement a small emergency-feeding programme by distributing porridge. The coordinator of MSF-Spain, Raquel Ayora, told IRIN on Wednesday that her NGO had intended to go to sites respectively 12 km and 22 km from Bangui, but cancelled the mission because of troop movements in the area. "We do not know what is going on," she said. The UN System of Operational Activities for Development in the CAR reported on Sunday that as a result of the fighting in Bangui a number of humanitarian issues needed urgent attention. These included the removal of decaying corpses from the streets and from mortuaries with no electricity; the restocking of the city's hospitals and health centres, which were "desperately short" of medical supplies; food supplies and psychological support for thousands of returning city residents who had fled the fighting; and fuel supply for the city. Ongoing intervention activities include the provision of psychological and other material support for rape victims. The UN Development Programme, the UN Population Fund and the Ministry of Social Affairs are engaged in this effort. The UN office recommends that contingency planning be conducted on the assumption that a worst-case humanitarian scenario may develop. "It is, therefore, strongly recommended that a more formal, objective and comprehensive analysis/needs assessment of the humanitarian situation for the whole country be conducted," the UN said.