Food arrives for 26,500 refugees

Enough food to feed 24,000 people for one week arrived on Sunday in the north Liberian town of Kolahun, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported. WFP said its convoy of 18 trucks carried 77 tonnes of cereals, cooking oil and pulses destined for 26,500 Sierra Leonean refugees in Kolahun and nearby Vahun. The convoy travelled through Voinjama, where gunmen took 24 people hostage, among them diplomats and relief workers, in April. "We had halted food deliveries to Kolahun after the incident in Voinjama, but it seems that the area is now safe enough for the resumption for relief supplies by road," Mamadou Mbaye, the WFP officer in charge of Liberia, said. With the upcoming rains, he added, WFP needed to stock food in Kolahun to avoid food shortages in refugee camps. WFP said that on 21 April, unidentified assailants looted its stores in Voinjama, stealing 550 mt of WFP food and several of the programme's trucks and cars. Other humanitarian organisations in the area were also looted. WFP recently increased its storage capacity in Kolahun by 2,000 mt, by installing five prefabricated warehouses, Mbaye said. "This will allow us to have a four-month buffer stock," he said.