WFP short of food for key operations

The World Food Programme (WFP) says it has severely cut back its emergency and post-war reconstruction assistance in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea because of lack of funding. Donors have provided less than 20 percent of the US $106 million needed to feed 1.8 million refugees and internally displaced people in the three countries, WFP said in a news release issued in Abidjan on Saturday. With no new contributions since July 1999, WFP has been unable to purchase sufficient food for its operations. This has also created planning difficulties for other humanitarian agencies, WFP said. In Sierra Leone, aid agencies are just beginning to go to parts of the country which have been inaccessible for months or years due to insecurity. People in some of these areas have been found living in the bush with very high levels of malnutrition and sickness, gathering wild food to eat, according to WFP. “Lack of resources has made it virtually impossible to provide sufficient assistance to these people,” Paul Ares, WFP manager for the West Africa Coastal Region, said. “As access improves in the coming weeks, this problem will become even more acute.” Further disruptions to the food-aid supply may seriously disrupt the Sierra Leone peace process, according to WFP. With commercial imports and local production unusually low as a result of insecurity earlier in the year, food aid is required to fill a major gap. An increasing number of refugees in Guinea and Liberia will be dependent this year on relief food, according to WFP. Insecurity in August and September in some border areas of both countries has meant that many refugees are being relocated to places that are safer but where they have no land for farming. The repatriation of refugees from Guinea to parts of Liberia has also been delayed because of a shortage of food aid, according to WFP.