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SUDAN: 6.7 MILLION PEOPLE NEED FOOD AID February 18, 2006
Apunyu Bonny
(SomaliNet) Almost seven million Sudanese will still require food aid over the coming year despite Sudan’s reasonably good harvest in 2005-2006, two UN food agencies said Friday.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) Majority of the needy Sudanese nationals have either been forced to flee their homes by fighting or are in the process of returning home following the 2005 peace agreement signed by the government and southern rebels.
Sudan’s overall cereal production in 2005/2006 according to an FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission amounted to about 5.3 million tonnes, 55 percent higher than the very poor 2004/05 harvest and 17 percent above the average of the previous five years.
"This is a heartening picture compared to previous years and the people of Sudan need all the help they can get, particularly from nature. But many also need the help of the international community, especially in the troubled region of Darfur and in southern Sudan, which is just beginning to recover from more than 20 years of civil war,†said WFP Country Director Ramiro Lopes da Silva.
A total of 731,000 tonnes of food is set to beMobilised and distribured to more than six million people across Sudan in 2006 by WFP. In addition to general food distribution, assistance will be provided through support to recovery activities and therapeutic and supplementary feeding projects to ensure that the most vulnerable are reached.
A sum of $ 40 milliom was recently appealed for by FAO to support its agricultural relief and recovery activities throughout the country in 2006, which include the distribution of seeds and tools, fishing equipment and livestock medicines to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable families, particularly returnees and internally displaced persons.Sudan is expected to benefit from this initiative.