WFP planning new phase of food relief

Delays in the arrival of shipments have caused WFP food distribution problems since January, and a break in the pipeline combined with internal transport problems had led to the combination of April and May distributions into one, the agency stated in its latest emergency report on Friday. Of the estimated 547,952 mt of food required for its emergency operation for June 2000 to July 2001, around 78 percent had been received from donors, it said. A shipment due in June and a contribution from the Kenyan government would cover cereal requirements for June and July, it added. The current phase of the emergency programme for Kenya was due to close at the end of June but there were still areas where food assistance was required, particularly in northern pastoral districts, according to WFP. The agency said it was drafting a proposal for a new phase of the emergency programme, including continued general distribution in certain districts, emergency school feeding, and food-for-work activities (in districts where general distributions have been phased out) from July to December. Key livestock production indicators were improving in several areas of the western pastoral districts of Kenya, and pastoralists were returning to their normal wet-season grazing areas in western Turkana, Marsabit and Samburu Districts, WFP reported. However, food security prospects in eastern pastoral districts were uncertain and livestock banditry had constrained the recovery of pastoralists, it said. In Turkana Districts, farmers had moved from southern parts which were relatively more resource endowed into drier central areas, due to cattle-raiding from neighbouring southern districts, it added. Tribal tensions in Marsabit had also caused restrictions of movement for UN personnel, and the Isiolo-Marsabit road was reported as increasingly unsafe, WFP added. [for full details, go to: http://www.wfp.org/ereport/index.html]