WFP warns the Darfur crisis is overshadowing food needs in southern Sudan

GENEVA, Nov 18, 2004 (AP) — While the world’s attention is focused on the humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, the troubled country’s south is facing growing food shortages, the U.N. World Food Program warned on Thursday.

Sudanese refugee family stands in the Kounoungo camp, Darfur Western Sudan.

At least 1.4 million in the south are in need of help, and the food outlook in 2005 looks “fairly bleak,” with a 20-50 percent decline in food production expected because of late and insufficient rains, inter-clan conflicts and militia attacks, the Rome-based agency said.

The WFP estimates that most families in the southern regions of Sudan, where 15 percent of the population suffers from chronic food shortages, will run out of food from the last crop long before the next harvest in October 2005.

If a peace agreement is signed in the conflict-ridden Darfur region, a great influx of people returning to their homes would increase the pressure on the country’s food supplies even more, the agency’s statement said.

The aim of humanitarian aid would be giving the region a longer-term ability to feed itself, besides delivering food supplies, the agency said.