WFP faces food supply gap

As the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) rushes relief supplies to western Zambia to aid an influx of Angolan refugees, the agency warned that its food stocks in Zambia were under pressure.

With a United States cereal donation only due in the country in mid-January, WFP's Deputy Country Representative Jorge Fanlo Martin told IRIN on Thursday that the agency "urgently" needed US $820,000 to purchase 2,000 mt of cereals to cover a two-month supply gap.

Martin said the arrival of some 4,000 Angolan refugees last week fleeing renewed fighting in southeastern Angola had "added to our problems". Nevertheless, WFP was ferrying food to the newcomers temporarily settled at the refugee camp of Nangweshi, 140 km from the Angolan border, in what Martin described as a "truck-to-mouth operation".

The fresh fighting in eastern Angola has followed a similar pattern over the past two years, in which government forces (FAA) have tried to consolidate their position against UNITA rebels ahead of the rainy season. However, according to one Johannesburg-based security analyst, the FAA this time believe they have trapped senior members of the UNITA leadership close to the Zambian border.

If that proves to be the case, he pointed out, the situation would become "problematic" if UNITA was forced to cross into Zambia, a country that has tried to distance itself from Angola's long-running civil war.