WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME BARGE CONVOY ON NILE RIVER BRINGS AID TO HUNGER-RAVAGED REGION OF SOUTHERN SUDAN

14 October 1997

Press Release
WFP/1046

WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME BARGE CONVOY ON NILE RIVER BRINGS AID TO HUNGER-RAVAGED REGION OF SOUTHERN SUDAN

19971014 Team Will Cross Front Lines to Deliver Supplies In Areas Contested by Government and Rebel Factions

KHARTOUM, 14 October (WFP) -- A convoy of barges chartered by the World Food Programme (WFP) has left Malakal with urgently needed food aid for Juba, southern Sudan, where civil war continues to cause widespread food shortages.

The barge convoy is the first to that city this year and comes after months of delays, largely due to insecurity in the region and particularly along the Nile River. The convoy is carrying a total of 2,664 metric tons of food aid.

A WFP team travelling with the convoy will distribute the food aid along the Nile River, crossing front lines to reach a total of 373,835 hungry people living in areas under the control of either the government or rebel factions.

Fighting between government and rebel forces around Juba, the largest city in southern Sudan, has created chronic food shortages for the city's population of 185,000. Most of the people have been forced to flee their homes and have been left with no access to agricultural land, making them rely heavily on food assistance.

The convoy to Juba is the eighth since the Programme began barge deliveries along the Nile River in 1993. It is expected to reach its final destination by the middle of November.

Another barge convoy, carrying 453 metric tons of food aid, is scheduled to leave Kosti on Thursday for Bentiu. The food will be distributed to some 41,000 people in Unity State in southern Sudan, where crop failure and civil war have caused food shortages.

The WFP has been at the forefront in the delivery of life-sustaining food aid to war-affected populations in southern Sudan from both northern Sudan and from Kenya and Uganda. Emergency assistance, has been provided this year along to more than 2.6 million war-affected Sudanese of whom 2.2 million are in the southern part of the country.

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