Darfur food tested
2006-06-07 21:23
Khartoum - The World Food Programme (WFP)
is testing food donated by the Sudanese government for people in
its war-torn western Darfur region to see if it is fit for human
consumption, officials said.
Two UN sources who declined to be named said the 20 000
tons of sorghum, from Sudan's strategic food reserves, had
been kept for too long and was infested with insects.
The head of WFP, James Morris, on a visit to Sudan, said he
could not confirm the food was unusable as it was being tested.
"I suspect that a quick visual look at the food suggested
that maybe it had been in storage for some time and we needed to
double check and be sure and that it was safe," he told
reporters in the capital Khartoum on Wednesday.
In May WFP was forced to halve its food rations to 2.7
million Darfuris caught up in the three years of rape, pillage
and murder in Sudan's remote west.
Rebels took up arms in
2003, accusing the Arab-dominated central government of neglect.