WFP recalls Port Loko food convoy

Concerned about the security situation, the World Food Progamme said on Tuesday it had recalled a food aid convoy destined for at least 14,000 displaced people in Port Loko, some 60 km northeast of Freetown. For the same reason, the UN agency said it also delayed food distribution on Thursday to over 16,000 displaced in Lungi, just north of the capital. Over the past six weeks WFP and its partners have registered over 85,000 displaced people in and around Freetown, Lungi,. Port Loko and Mile 91, most of whom have fled their homes in the northern towns of Lunsar, Makeni and Magburaka due to recent fighting. “Displaced people are arriving in poor shape and had to leave behind all their belongings,” Patrick Buckley, WFP representative in Sierra Leone, said. WFP also expressed its “deep concern” for the thousands of displaced people stranded in non-government held areas and isolated rural regions where food is lacking. The fighting has erupted at the May-September rainy season, known locally as the “hunger season”. Over the past 10 years, fighting between rebels and the government has severely disrupted farming and cut-off large parts of the country from commercial food. Tens of thousands of people have lost all their property and income generating activities and, WFP said, were relying on relief supplies provided by aid agencies.