WFP delivers desperately needed food in north

The World Food Programme (WFP) has delivered food rations to thousands of drought-affected nomads in the Sool Plateau in northern Somalia. In a statement issued on Monday, the agency said that over the past three weeks it had delivered 732 mt of "mixed food commodities" to 39 villages in the area. "We have managed to reach nearly 77,000 people affected by the most severe drought in the region for more than 20 years. We targeted those least able to cope - malnourished children, the destitute, the disabled and the aged," said Robert Hauser, the WFP representative for Somalia. Humanitarian access to the region was guaranteed following extensive discussions on security issues between the WFP and the administrations of the self-declared republic Somaliland and the neighbouring self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, both of which claim the area. The Sool Plateau falls geographically within Somaliland, but most of the clans who live there are associated with neighbouring Puntland. These negotiations had also opened up access to other humanitarian agencies, the statement added. WFP said it required 14,912 mt of food, worth about US $11.5 million, for the drought emergency operation and other projects in Somalia until the end of 2004.