WFP food deliveries to IDPs, refugees

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), last week delivered 140 mt of food to about 8,000 refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Guinea, WFP’s regional office in Abidjan told IRIN. Despite heavy rains, which make road transport difficult, the distribution suffered no major setbacks because the food had been stocked beforehand at various distribution sites. Beneficiaries included 2,800 IDPs in Faranah, 450 km southeast of Conakry, and 3,000 in Nzerekore, 800 km southeast of the Guinean capital. Some 520 refugees in Nzerekore also received supplies, while 1,500 former IDPs received food for work they have been doing on gardening, infrastructure and other projects. Last week’s deliveries marked the completion of food distributions to about 25,000 IDPs in Faranah. However, deliveries to those in Nzerekore are scheduled to continue. WFP expects to feed about 20,000 more people there in the coming weeks. WFP has been providing food to more than 80,000 refugees and some 190,000 IDPs in Guinea, where fighting along the border with Liberia and Sierra Leone has caused mass population displacement over the past months.