INSECURITY THREATENS AID OPERATIONS IN AFRICA, UN FOOD AGENCY CHIEF WARNS

INSECURITY THREATENS AID OPERATIONS IN AFRICA, UN FOOD AGENCY CHIEF WARNS
New York, Apr 29 2007 11:00AM
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has made dramatic progress in reducing malnutrition in Ethiopia, Sudan and Chad but these achievements risk being diminished by constantly shifting security conditions, the head of the agency said today in Rome after wrapping up a tour of those countries.

Josette Sheeran welcomed the gains she witnessed but emphasized that sustained improvement requires long-term investment to steer a country from overwhelming crisis to gradual recovery.

Ms. Sheeran's Africa visit, her first field mission since assuming the top job at WFP on 5 April, took her to Ethiopia, Sudan and lastly to Chad, where she met yesterday with government and donor country representatives to discuss assistance for some 365,000 refugees and internally displaced.

"Chad is facing the triple challenge of chronic hunger, a surge in internally displaced people and growing numbers of refugees from Darfur. We need to raise the resources to respond to all these needs," said Ms. Sheeran, referring to the western region of Sudan where fighting has displaced some 2 million people since 2003.

In the discussions, officials spoke of their shared "hope to move beyond the emergency phase here and develop school feeding projects so that children can grow and gain an education and have greater opportunities in life," said Ms. Sheeran.

Ms. Sheeran cited WFP's meals-in-school programme for children in crisis settings as a good example of a "humanitarian bridge" from the emergency to a stable life.

2007-04-29 00:00:00.000

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