WFP to increase food rations in Sudan’s Darfur region
May 29, 2006 (ROME) — The United Nations World Food Programme announced today that food
aid rations, recently reduced by half for more than three million people
in Sudan, would be increased to 84 percent in energy content from June to
September in Darfur, thanks to the latest donations towards WFP’s emergency
operation.
“We greatly appreciate the donations received so far, which provide an
urgent boost to people’s daily diet,” said James Morris, WFP’s Executive
Director in a statement issued in Rome. “However, continued contributions, preferably in cash, are still
crucial to help address urgent needs in the months ahead.”
At the beginning of May, the United States announced it would divert to
Sudan food aid shipments valued at US$46.2 million. Other donors, including
Canada, the European Commission, Australia, Germany and Denmark, have also
offered funds and pledges which, together with an announced Sudanese
contribution of cereal, will enable WFP to raise the number of kilocalories
per person per day to 1,770 (the minimum daily requirement is 2,100
kilocalories) in Darfur.
The Sudan Government’s donation of 20,000 metric tons of cereals is a
welcome contribution that will allow WFP to distribute a full ration of
cereals in Darfur for the next three months. For about 370, 000 people in
the East and Central areas, rations remain at 64 percent of the required
minimum energy content.
“We are now in a race against time to deliver more food both to the people
of Sudan and to people in Darfur, as the onset of the rainy season in June
makes roads inaccessible,” said Morris. “The average time it takes for
pledges to arrive as food aid in the country is four to six months. The
earliest WFP could hope to restore complete rations across Sudan is
October, but this still depends on the flow of contributions.”
A critical shortage of donor funds forced WFP to announce in April, and
distribute in May, half rations in Darfur and the East of Sudan, a
decision which Morris described as one of the hardest he had ever made.
WFP has been warning since November 2005 that it would need significant
donations, US$600 million by May, to guarantee a continued flow of food
aid to more than 6.1 million hungry people in Sudan. But five months into
2006, WFP’s Emergency Operation in Sudan is only 42.6 percent funded. So
the agency needs donors to provide contributions now to cover requirements
for the last quarter of the year.
“The world has a deep obligation to do its utmost to assist the people of
Sudan, many of whom have already suffered immense trauma as a result of
brutal conflict,” said Morris.
(ST)