WFP calls for urgent aid to avoid "major hunger"

The scale of the return of Angolan refugees and displaced to their homes has forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to appeal for urgent donor aid to move food stocks and avoid "major hunger" in the coming months. WFP said in a statement on Thursday that "lives are being put at risk in post-war Angola because [WFP] lacks the necessary resources to start moving large quantities of food immediately". "There has been a much larger movement of both IDPs [internally displaced persons] and refugees than was expected," WFP spokesman in Luanda, Marcelo Spina Hering, told IRIN. "The movement of IDPs is totally out of control, people are moving everyday in every direction." WFP is currently feeding 1.2 million people and had estimated that 1.5 million would be in need of food aid up to December. But since the April ceasefire the situation "has changed rapidly", and WFP now expects 1.9 million beneficiaries. To meet that increase, the food agency said that 44,000 mt of relief supplies must arrive in Angola "soon" to create a three-month buffer stock. "With the rainy season underway, many parts of the country are becoming increasingly inaccessible because of poor infrastructure. Although the government had committed itself to repairing roads, bridges and airstrips, much more still remains to be done. WFP must immediately build up buffer stocks in several provinces to avoid major hunger," the WFP statement said. Previously settled IDPs are now on the move back to their areas of origin. Refugees are also spontaneously returning in large numbers. In the town of Luau, in eastern Moxico province, as many as 200 to 300 refugees are arriving from Zambia each day, and are being added to the IDP caseload, said Spina Hering. "But when they get back to their areas of origin, there is nothing for them. They need to rebuild houses, crops, a whole life," he added. Over recent months, 60 new locations in Angola have received WFP assistance, adding an additional 426,000 beneficiaries to WFP's register. With more areas still to be assessed, the number will rise further. The increase in the number of women and children entering nutritional programmes is also expected to increase this year - due to large areas of crops that were destroyed in the final stages of the war, the agency said. WFP currently has less than 22 percent of the funding for its operation in Angola. In addition, more support is needed for NGOs working as WFP's implementing partners in distributing food so that they can expand their geographical coverage and capacity, the statement warned.