WFP suspends food delivery to Bangui due to insecurity

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday it had suspended deliveries of food aid from the Cameroonian port of Douala to Bangui, the capital of Central African Republic (CAR), because the security situation at its warehouses was not satisfactory for the storing and distribution of food.

"WFP has given instructions that the food stored in Douala should not be sent onwards to Bangui until we are ready to receive it here," David Bulman, WFP representative in CAR, told IRIN.

WFP said 1,800 mt of food were looted from WFP warehouses in Bangui in the aftermath of the 15 March coup, in which Francois Bozize seized power from former president Ange-Felix Patasse. "We are using the same warehouses that were looted and their security situation has not changed," Bulman said.

Bulman said WFP had requested a more secure location for its warehouses during a meeting with Prime Minister Abel Goumba on Wednesday.

Bulman said WFP was not yet able to plan any food distribution in the war-affected regions of the country due to insecurity both on the roads and at distribution sites. According to Bulman, the worst affected populations are those in areas that changed hands during the fighting of the past six months. Also a priority are people in the northernmost part of CAR which was previously under the control of Bozize.

Bulman said a joint government-WFP mission would tour the north to assess the situation. "For us to be able to do that [make a food distribution], we need a reasonable level of security for our staff, truckers and food," he said.