Reports on food gab in Sudan are mere rumours: WFP

KHARTOUM, Mar 1, 2005 (SUNA) — The Resident Representative of the World Programme (WFP) to Sudan said that reports by some international media on a food gap in Sudan were just unfounded rumours.

Sudanese men unload sacks of sorghum during a delivery of aid from the World Food Program in Kalma Camp, near Nyala town, Darfur. (AFP).

He said that such reports were attributed to the fact that the year 2003/2004 witnessed a record grains production reaching 6.2 million tons while the production of this year amounted to 3.3 million tons and the price of last year was 145.135 dollars a ton and 288 dollars this year.

During his meeting Tuesday with the State Minister at the Foreign Ministry, Nagib Al-Khair Abdel-Wahab, the WFP official said decrease of the produced cereal’s productivity in the current year, if compared to record production in the past year, does not mean a shortage in the required food quantities in the country.

The WFP Representative said that the currently existing grains’ quantity in Darfur is 300,000 tons, adding that 70% of the required 453,000 cereal’s tons for Darfur were provided. Regarding the WFP work in other states, he indicated that the donors have provided 25,500 tons of cereals for other states in Sudan, out of the total required quantity of 268,000 tons.

He said that the WFP is carrying out integrated assessment for the food requirements, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Sudanese Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Humanitarian Affairs.

The State Minister for Foreign Affairs affirmed at his meeting with the WFP Representative Sudan keenness to cooperate with the WFP and to assist it in achieving its goals.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, pointed out that the drop in the food production in the current year, if compared to that in the past year, does not pose in any way a threat of famine. He said that the grains productivity this year was a considerable one, despite the fact it is less than that in the past year.