Food distribution begins

A French NGO, Premiere Urgence, is to distribute 70 mt of food on Wednesday to 4,600 refugees and displaced persons in southwestern Guinea under a food distribution operation begun this week, UNHCR spokeswoman Fati Kaba told IRIN. The operation, which is taking place in the Parrots Beak area, began on Monday when 58 mt of food provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) was ferried to an initial group of 3,800 people in three camps. The beneficiaries have been without regular food supplies since September as a result of fighting in the nearby town of Guekedou. NGOs specialising in health care report a high malnutrition rate among the refugees and IDPs, Kaba said, although the exact figure was not immediately available. Each beneficiary is receiving 2,100 kilo calories of food per day, she said, "which should reduce the malnutrition". The month-long UNHCR operation will enable food provided by the WFP to reach 135,000 Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees and 70,000 Guineans displaced by the fighting.