Libya donates food relief for drought victims

Libya on Monday handed over a donation of 1,000 mt of food to Kenya for distribution in the country’s drought-hit areas, AFP reported. It was “in the spirit of brotherhood that the president and the people of Libya have come to the aid of a fellow African country to cement new-found African unity and prosperity,” it quoted Libyan Charge d’Affaires Maulood Jezeibi as saying at the handover ceremony in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. Jezeibi said the gesture was in response to a recent WFP alert that millions of people in drought-stricken areas of northern Kenya, Ethiopia, southern Sudan and the Horn of Africa could go without food in the absence of external relief. The Kenyan minister of state in the office of the president, Shariff Nassir, said that about 1.5 million Kenyans were facing starvation and required international food assistance, AFP reported.

The Kenya Food Security group was currently undertaking an Impact Assessment to review the drought emergency operation and highlight lessons learned but, given the continued need for food assistance, WFP intended to extend its current operations from mid-July 2001 up to mid-March 2002, the agency reported on 13 March. WFP said it intended to appeal for US $70.8 million, to help address the needs of 3,161,777 people. Meanwhile, after a food survey in Garissa District, northeastern Kenya, an inter-agency team comprising WFP, CARE, UNICEF and government representatives has recommended halving the number of drought victims who will be eligible for food assistance from 14,405 to 7,203. A re-registration exercise is to be conducted prior to the July food distribution. Elsewhere, food aid distribution was suspended in Baragoi division of Samburu District, central Kenya, due to insecurity, while security in El-Wak sub-district of Mandera, northeastern Kenya, remained a concern, WFP stated in its weekly emergency report.