WFP worried about effects of new fighting

Renewed fighting in Sierra Leone will seriously affect humanitarian assistance to tens of thousands of needy people throughout the country the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a news release received by IRIN today.

WFP deliveries to war-affected people in the interior had been halted for two weeks because the main road linking Freetown to the rest of the country was unsafe, WFP said, but it had managed to move 90 mt of food out of Freetown for delivery to the southern towns of Bo and Kenema on Monday.

There was enough food in the two towns to meet needs over the next month, it said, but it did not have access to depleted stocks in Makeni, affecting food distribution to 24,000 people.

“WFP and its food aid partners have sufficient food stocks for all the country in Freetown but with the increased rebel activity, trucking companies face serious security constraints to deliver our food to vulnerable people in the interior,” said Patrick Buckley, WFP Representative in Sierra Leone.

WFP said the upsurge in rebel attacks in northern and eastern parts of Sierra Leone and near the capital, Freetown, had resulted in the displacement of an estimated 80,000 people over the past few days.