Government, WFP provide food for Congolese refugees

The World Food Programme (WFP) is to provide Congolese refugees in Gabon with 1,200 mt of food over a six-month period, the UNDP Resident Representative in Gabon, Toon Vissers, told IRIN on Wednesday.

Vissers, who represents the WFP in Libreville, said that following the signature of a letter of intent with the Gabonese government on Monday, the WFP will be able to buy about US $120,000 worth of food in Gabon for the refugees in the short term. Other food will be brought in mainly from Cameroon.

Food which the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other sources had provided for the refugees over the past few months ran out in mid-February, causing concern among humanitarian officials, sources told IRIN in Libreville.

To bridge the gap, Gabon’s government has provided supplies for the refugees, Marc Adolphe Doumi-Mandatse, secretary-general of the Gabonese Foreign Ministry, told IRIN on Wednesday. “So far we have bought 180 tonnes of food with our own funds and money provided by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), China, Korea and la Francophonie,” he said.

The food, worth 89 million CFA francs, and four million CFA francs worth of kerosene were sent to the provinces of Ngounie and Nyanga on 9 March, said Doumi-Mandatse, who chairs an inter-ministerial technical commission on refugees.

[The CFA franc is worth about 650 to the US dollar.]

Doumi-Mandatse said an additional 100 mt of food was needed until the start of April, when the food provided by WFP - destined for some 12,000 refugees - was expected to be delivered.

Some 13,500 Congolese refugees have registered with the UNHCR in Gabon, but Gabon’s government believes the real number is more than 30,000 since many have not registered for fear of being deported, Doumi-Mandatse said.

Gabon’s government had launched an appeal on 9 November 1999 for help in dealing with the refugee crisis. Thus far, Doumi-Mandatse said, all the bilateral financial assistance it has received has totalled 79 million CFA francs (just over US $121,000).

The OAU sent 45 million CFA francs, China donated 18 million, Korea 6.133 million, and la Francophonie 10 million. Cameroon’s government and Gabonese NGOs also made contributions in kind, he said.