WFP distributes food to displaced people in Monrovia camps

The World Food Programme started distributing bulgur wheat, vegetable oil, pulses and salt to tens of thousands of displaced people in four camps in and around the Liberian capital, Monrovia, on Friday. The food, which was distributed over three days, is expected to take the beneficiaries in Plumkor, Perry, Blamasee and SKD stadium camps through 30 days, WFP officials said. "They get rations according to the number of family members," a WFP official told IRIN. "The lowest ration is 12.6 kg of bulgur wheat, 0.9 kg of oil, 0.15 kg salt and 1.5 kg of pulses per person," a WFP officials told IRIN in Plumkor where 7,500 people live. The items were being handed to heads of family, with women being encouraged to take this role and receive the food items. A recipient, Friday Brown, 24, said he wanted to go back home in Sinoe county, from where war ejected him six months ago. "All I want now is to go back and to also get help to do some training either in mechanic, masonry, electrical wiring," he told IRIN. "We carry out the distributions a few camps at a time because otherwise it would be very difficult to cover all the camps simultanenously because of limited personel and logistics," the official explained. WFP provides food to 385,000 people in Liberia, including special rations for 60,000 malnorished children in Monrovia. The agency says food aid is vital to establishing stability in the country. The deployment over the coming weeks of thousands more UN peacekeepers (UNMIL) will open up parts of the country that WFP has not been able to reach for months, it said. It estimates it will need about 70,000 tonnes of foods to feed up to 430,000 people in the country over the coming year.