WFP appeals for funds to avert food gap

WFP on Thursday appealed to donors for immediate contributions to keep the food aid “pipeline” from breaking down in the Great Lakes region. In a press release, the head of the WFP Africa desk in Rome, Mohamed Zejjari, pointed out the agency was virtually the sole source of food for over one million people in the region. “Existing stocks will be exhausted by the end of July and fresh supplies are not scheduled to arrive until September,” he warned. “WFP urgently needs US $13 million to bridge the gap between June and September.” “We have very grave concerns about the ability of the people to sustain the reduction in rations we will be forced to make,” he added. He said the three-month gap arose because of delays in deliveries of food to the region. WFP’s representative in Tanzania warned that refugees there are particularly vulnerable to reduced rations because many are already in fragile health. “We’ve already had rioting on previous occasions when we have tried to cut back the rations,” Irene Lacy said. “Continued reductions are extremely dangerous.”