WFP seeks $3.5 million for operations

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has asked donors for US $3.5 million for a humanitarian air service in Liberia and to replace vehicles and other equipment looted or destroyed during recent fighting between Liberian government troops and rebels. WFP spokesman Ramin Rafirasme said donors had already contributed almost half of the $6.8 million the agency had requested for special operations in Liberia, but said there were still needs to be met. "We are saying - thank you to the donors for the 50 percent contribution but we are still short by $3.5 million," Rafirasme told IRIN on Tuesday. "To carry out every single component of our operations is critical, that is why we need all the money." The WFP's transport operations include a light air shuttle between the Liberian capital Monrovia, neighbouring capitals and several remote destinations in the subregion, carrying relief workers, cargo and equipment to isolated spots that would otherwise be impossible to reach due to impassable roads and security problems. To deliver food to hundreds of thousands of displaced Liberians, WFP needs trucks and technical equipment. However, its fleet of more than 20 trucks was seriously depleted by the looting which accompanied heavy fighting in and around Monrovia in June-July. "Without trucks we cannot take food outside Monrovia," Rafirasme said. In August, General Aliyu Sheriff, chief of staff of Liberia's main rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), pledged to help recover vehicles stolen from relief agencies, but LURD has yet to deliver on its promise. Fighters of the second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) also stole some vehicles in the territory it controls in southern and eastern Liberia. The WFP said it also needed funds to reopen its four suboffices in the interior of the country. These were abandoned several years ago after being comprehensively looted, but should now play a key role in an expanding food assistance operation, as aid agencies follow peacekeepers into new areas. "The deployment over the coming weeks of thousands more UN peacekeepers is going to open up parts of the country that we have not been able to reach for months," WFP Liberia Representative Justin Bagirishya said. "We know there are large numbers of people in these areas who need our assistance, so it is crucial for us to have the logistical capacity to provide it and to ensure that it goes into the right hands," he added. While a relative peace has prevailed in Monrovia since a peace agreement was signed in August and the deployment of peacekeeping troops, the WFP has faced difficulties in using commercial distributors to take food to thousands of displaced Liberians in camps. The agency has also had to bring in more food to replenish stocks of wheat, maize and other commodities looted from the port during the different rounds of fighting. The WFP said on Monday it would need some 9,000 tons of food each month to feed up to 500,000 people in Liberia. Current stocks are sufficient to last until the end of the year, but more donations were urgently needed to prevent supplies running out in early 2004, the agency said. Meanwhile the relief organisation, World Vision, was on Tuesday flying 12 MT of relief items from Nairobi in Kenya to Liberia, worth US $132,000 to help 15,000 people, mainly mothers and children who were displaced by fighting in and around Monrovia.