Slow donor response forces WFP to cut rations for Sudanese
Mar 11, 2006 (NAIROBI) — The UN World Food Program (WFP) said Saturday that a critically slow donor response to appeals forits emergency operation in Sudan have forced it to cut rations of pulses, sugar and salt for up to 3.5 million people immediately, to help limited stocks last longer.
In a statement issued in Nairobi, the UN agency said while supplies of some commodities such as cereals, which form the majorpart of general food distribution rations, are not yet affected –complete breaks in the supply of others are now imminent.
“Ration cuts are a last resort, but we simply have no alternative,” said Bradley Guerrant, WFP Sudan Deputy Country Director in the statement.
“We are cutting amounts of these three items in general food distributions so that we can keep some supplies going for longer.And we need to set aside stocks for the highest priority groups,” Guerrant said.
“In particular, we are earmarking remaining sugar for feeding centers across Sudan to make sure that malnourished children and pregnant and lactating mothers get this vital part of their diet,”he said.
WFP said towards end of last month it had only four percent of the 746 million U.S. dollars it needed to feed more than six million people across Sudan in 2006.
Currently, it said assistance received totals only 15 percent of the target, leaving it critically short of the funds it needs to sustain the life-saving operation.
The UN agency said another 234 million dollars is needed immediately to allow WFP to ensure supplies of food aid continue in the critical months ahead.
“While the latest donation from the United States — which brings their total contribution to 114 million dollars — is extremely welcome, we are urgently appealing for more cash so thatwe can continue to move food stocks into place in Sudan, in advance of the rainy season,” said Guerrant.
“We are working in some of the most remote and inaccessible locations in the world in Sudan, and it can take four to five months to translate a donation into food assistance on the ground, ” Guerrant said.
The WFP statement follows an announcement by the refugee agencyUNHCR on Friday of a 44 percent reduction in its 2006 program budget for Sudan’s Darfur region citing deteriorating security that has severely limited its operations and access in Sudan’s strife-torn region.
In a revised appeal cutting the amount from 33 million dollars to 18.5 million dollars, the UNHCR noted that the steady erosion of security had forced it to downsize its operations and relocate staff.
The agency said its work in the region is “extremely difficult when direct access to beneficiaries is limited” and blamed lack ofsecurity and confidence in the Sudanese government as the main obstacles for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees to return to their villages.
Among those receiving food assistance from WFP and its cooperating partners in Sudan are the displaced, eking out an existence in camps across Darfur, and returnees who, in the wake of last year’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement, are now treking backhome in southern Sudan and the three areas (formerly known as the transitional areas).
Often arriving in their home areas with little or nothing, these people are returning to one of the most impoverished regionsin the world, said WFP.
(Xinhua)