UN food agency appeals for more funds for Sudan

A Sudanese woman sits with her malnourished child at a feeding centre run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the village of Paliang, roughly 160 km northwest of the southern town of Rumbek, May 25, 2005. (Reuters).

ROME, May 25, 2005 (AP) — A U.N. food agency appealed Wednesday for nearly US$62 million (A?49.14 million) for emergency assistance to Sudan’s agricultural sector, saying such aid was crucial to peace efforts in the African country.

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said it had received about US$10.5 million (A?8.32 million), only 17 percent of the funds requested from international donors.

A peace accord signed in January ended a 21-year civil war in southern Sudan, but violence continues in a separate conflict in the western region of Darfur. The U.N. agency said conflict, population displacements and inadequate rainfall had resulted in a precarious food situation in parts of the country.

The agency said it expects to reach more than 450,000 farming families with its projects, including displaced people and those returning to their homes and trying to restart farming activities.

The appeal came a day after another U.N. agency, the Rome-based World Food Program, said it had a crippling shortage of funds to feed millions of people in southern Sudan.