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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
LIBERIA: WFP plans to ship 9,000 tonnes of food per month into Monrovia
ABIDJAN, 14 August 2003 (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday it was planning to send 9,000 tonnes of food per month into Liberia to feed an estimated 500,000 needy people, most of them in the capital Monrovia.
WFP spokesman Richard Lee said most of the 10,000 tonnes of food which had been stored at warehouses in the port of Monrovia before rebels attacked the city in early June had been looted, but there was still some maize meal left.
He said WFP ships were already being diverted to Monrovia from other destinations and some WFP stocks of grain, pulses and vegetable oil would be shipped into the capital's deep-water port from nearby Sierra Leone and Guinea.
"We are looking at around 9,000 tonnes a month to feed about 500,000 people. That's for Liberia as a whole, but obviously the majority of that will be Monrovia," Lee told IRIN.
The port of Monrovia, which was overun by rebels on July 19, was handed over to Nigerian peacekeeping troops on Thursday. Lee said he expected the first WFP ship, which has been waiting offshore for the past week, to dock there on Friday to unload three tonnes of high energy biscuits.
The speed at which further ships could be sent in would depend on the state of the port installations. Lee said a port captain was on board the WFP platform supply ship Seabulk Martin 1 which was waiting to dock. He would make a rapid assessment of damage to the port and the ability of its equipment to offload and store cargo.
Lee said much of the food stored in the port had been carried off by rebel fighters and thousands of hungry civilians in an orgy of looting during the 24 hours before the port was handed over to Nigerian troops. "They moved a lot of food in a very short space of time," he said.
He said WFP officials who visited the port on Thursday found that all the sugar, vegetable oil, pulses and corn soya blend stored there had been stolen, but there was still some maize meal left.
"We do have some stocks of maize meal left in the port, but the exact quantity is under assessment at the moment," he told IRIN.
Relief workers said privately they believed there was anything from 2,000 to 3,000 tonnes of maize meal left in the port, but much of it was in poor condition.
The spokesman said WFP had put on hold plans for a major airlift of food into Monrovia, but it would continue to use a small passenger plane that shuttles daily between Abidjan and Monrovia to fly in more high energy biscuits. 12 tonnes of these were flown into Monrovia earlier this month.
The spokesman said that on its next trip to Monrovia from Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, the Seabulk Martin 1 would take in fork-lift trucks to facilitate the movement of cargo onshore.
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Food Security
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