Food distribution to 4,400 vulnerable people

During the past week an inter-agency team spearheaded by CARE provided 67 mt of food and non-food items to just over 4,400 vulnerable individuals in Masanga, some 25 km southeast of Makeni, the NGO reported on Wednesday. It is the first time in 18 months that humanitarian agencies have distributed commodities in this area as operations have been constrained by insecurity and fear of looting by rebel elements, CARE said. “This distribution is considered extremely important given a substantially large number of the identified beneficiaries are lepers who do not ... have survival coping mechanisms that others may have,” CARE said. CARE, World Vision, WFP and ADRA registered beneficiaries and distributed the food, CARE reported. A source from CARE told IRIN it was hoped that further commodity distributions, including food for agriculture and food for work, would start “incrementally northwards and eastwards of Masanga”. The source said such interventions would depend on follow-up verifications by international agencies to ensure that RUF rebels do not force the targeted beneficiaries to give them the food.