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Food aid for displaced near Kenyan border

    NAIROBI

    Displaced Somalis living near the Kenyan border have received some food assistance, despite the recent closure of the frontier, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said.

    "Some WFP-contracted trucks loaded with food were allowed to cross into Somalia from Liboi, but others were stopped at the border. These people have been trapped near Dhobley," the WFP-Somalia Deputy Country Director Leo van der Velden said.

    An increasing number of civilians has moved towards the border, which remains closed due to the Kenyan government’s security concerns. Many of these are near Dhobley, a village of 12,000 people in Lower Juba region.


    Photo: IRIN

    "We will organise another monthly distribution if the situation remains the way it is; otherwise we wind up [operations] according to plan," Van der Velden added. The five-day distribution, which started on Friday at Dhobley, is being done in conjunction with WASDA, a Somali NGO.

    According to WFP, continuing military operations in Lower Juba had left 190,000 people in urgent need of food assistance. Kismayo, Jamaame and Jilib districts are also in need of aid.

    "If we are to operate normally and efficiently, we first need peace," Van der Velden said. "Somalia was already suffering badly from the worst drought in a decade followed by the worst floods in years. Now it has renewed war in some of the same areas hit by drought and floods."

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    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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