UN food agency suspends activities in remote area of W. Equatoria

August 23, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The World Food Programme (WFP) has suspended its activities in some parts of Western Equatoria State following attacks by the notorious Ugandan rebel Lord Resistance Army (LRA).

Earlier this week the WFP reported that the Ugandan rebels attacked Ezo district, in the remote Western Equatoria state near Sudan’s border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and killed two people and injured three others, on August 12. The LRA also abducted 10 girls from a local church, and they pillaged and torched homes, stealing food.

In a press briefing held on Sunday in Khartoum, Mr. Kenro Oshidari, WFP Representative in Sudan told reporters that following LRA rebels on their teams in Ezo, the UN food assistance body evacuated its workers and suspended their humanitarian activities there as result of the increasing violence there.

“On 13 August, as a result of the intensifying LRA attacks, the UN was forced to suspend all humanitarian activities in the area, and 29 humanitarian workers, including seven UNHCR staff, were evacuated by helicopter,” the UNHCR announced from Geneva on August 21.

The recent LRA attacks have triggered widespread panic and fear in the area bordering the DRC and the Central African Republic (CAR), he said. Most of those on the run have already been uprooted by earlier LRA incursions.

Mr. Oshidari reaffirmed that the WFP would resume its humanitarian assistance in Ezo area as soon as the security situation is improved.

Increasing tribal violence, poor rainfall and high food prices were identified as the ‘key shocks’ behind the worsening food security situation in southern Sudan.

The WFP plans to increase by 25 percent its food assistance distributed to Southern Sudan this year, to a total of 118,000 metric tons, because the number of people facing severe food shortages had now risen to 1.3 million.

He also pointed out that southern Sudan needs some 22,000 metric tons to cover food gap till the end of October.

(ST)