DATE=5/5/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=WFP / ANGOLA (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262027
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations World Food Program, W-F-P,
says it is facing a funding crisis in war-torn Angola.
The agency warns it will have to drastically cut back
its food distribution program to hundreds of thousands
of vulnerable people unless it receives 100-million U-
S dollars immediately. Lisa Schlein reports from
Geneva.
TEXT: The World Food Program says it has to replenish
its stocks of food quickly. Otherwise, it says it
will begin to run out by August and have no food left
by the end of the year. It says it has no money to
buy food, and is appealing to the international
community for immediate assistance.
The agency is currently feeding one-point-three-
million people in government controlled areas of
Angola. W-F-P Spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume says
she expects the number of people who will be in need
of food to rise to one-point-six million by the end of
the year.
/// BERTHIAUME ACT ///
The situation in Angola is deteriorating.
Security-wise, it is getting worse and worse.
We cannot use the roads because either they are
mined or there are daily attacks against
vehicles, trucks and passengers. For the time
being for us, the most important way to bring
food into the towns where there are all these
displaced people is by plane.
/// END ACT ///
And, even air transportation is becoming difficult.
Ms. Berthiaume says the airport runway at Kuito in
central Angola is in bad shape. She says W-F-P does
not have the money to repair it. She says the agency
only has been able to have one or two flights a day
instead of seven. As a consequence, she says food
delivery to Kuito was cut drastically last month.
And, only the most vulnerable women and children
received food rations.
Ms. Berthiaume says people are so terrorized, they do
not dare move from places where they have found
relative security from the fighting. She says a few
weeks ago, some people went back to their land from
time to time to try to harvest their crops.
/// BERTHIAUME ACT ///
But, now the situation is so dangerous that they
don't even dare to get out. And, if they do,
it's because they are really hungry because they
are taking a lot of risk. So, this is why we
need urgently money in order to feed those
people that have no other ways than us. We are
the only people providing them help and if we
don't, and if we can't do it, they will die.
/// END ACT ///
The Angolan government and UNITA rebels have been
fighting each other on and off for the past 25 years.
After a brief cease-fire, fighting resumed at the end
of 1998. The government estimates nearly four-million
people have been left homeless. Many thousands more
have taken refuge in neighboring countries. (Signed)
NEB/LS/GE/JP
05-May-2000 09:30 AM EDT (05-May-2000 1330 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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