WFP reduces Sudan aid on fuel shortages
Sept 13, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — A severe jet fuel shortage has forced the U.N. World Food Program to cut its deliveries in southern Sudan by half at the height of the hunger season, according to an agency statement released Tuesday.
WFP delivered 10,600 metric tons of food to southern Sudan in August, mainly by road from Kenya and Uganda; its goal had been 20,700 tons for 1.3 million people.
“This could not have happened at a worse time for the people of Sudan,” said WFP Country Director Ramiro Lopes da Silva. “This is a tragedy for hundreds of thousands of people.”
The WFP is concerned about growing malnutrition in parts of southern Sudan ahead of the coming harvest.
The fuel shortage, which has gone on for several months, was blamed on insufficient contributions and the late arrival of donor funds, as well as slow deliveries of fuel, a shortage of tankers, limited storage and high demand.
The closure in July of Sudan’s only refinery that produces JetA1 fuel also hurt the situation, the statement said.
The refinery’s closure, for repairs, also affected the African Union, which suspended peacekeeper deployments to Sudan’s war-torn western Darfur region due to lack of jet fuel and heavy rains.
“Supplies of JetA1 were short even before the refinery closure,” Lopes da Silva said. “That pushed us over the edge. We tried everything we could to get sufficient supplies in time, but the demand was simply too great.”
He admitted that flying the food to the sites was costly but necessary due to the rainy season and lack of roads in the south.
The statement said the shortage of JetA1 fuel continued into September and also hampered deliveries of food aid to Darfur.
The statement cited statistics from non-governmental organizations in Northern Bahr El Ghazal province that showed more than 8,500 malnourished children are in feeding centres supplied with enriched corn-soya blend by WFP. More than 1,100 of the children are considered to be severely malnourished.
The WFP urgently appealed for donors to send their promised aid. The statement said the Emergency Operation for the South, East and Transitional Areas had a shortfall of 41%, or $124 million, so far this year.
(AP/ST)