WFP re-opens land route for aid

2005-12-05 22:51

Nairobi - The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Monday it had re-opened a land route to deliver vital humanitarian aid to lawless Somalia after being forced to cancel maritime deliveries by a surge in piracy.

For the first time in four years, a convoy of trucks carrying food supplies to displaced Somalis arrived in the anarchic nation by road from the port of Mombasa in neighbouring Kenya on Sunday, the United Nations agency said in a statement.

"This is a great achievement, but sadly it was forced on us by the pirates who have attacked our chartered ships and other vessels this year," said WFP's country representative for Somalia, Zlatan Milisic.

Fourteen trucks carrying 500 tons of food arrived in Wajid town in Bakol region on Sunday after an arduous 1 200km drive from Mombasa and through 25 militia checkpoints in Somalia, WFP said.

Too risky

The WFP cancelled maritime deliveries of much-needed assistance to Somalia after two chartered vessels carrying food aid were hijacked by Somali gunmen in June and August amid a surge in attacks by pirates.

"It is 25% to 30% cheaper to bring our food aid in by sea and boats can carry much more, but we have had to resort to this land route because ship owners feel it is too risky to sail to the south," Milisic said.

Last month, WFP said rising piracy had choked deliveries of aid, putting at great risk more than half a million people facing acute food shortages in the country's southern regions.

Sunday's delivery marked the first time WFP has moved food aid overland since February 2001 and comes as the humanitarian situation in southern Somalia is deteriorating due to drought and insecurity, it said.

Rain

"It couldn't happen at a worse time," Milisic said. "If the current rains in the south fail and there are severe food shortages, WFP must rapidly increase deliveries to the south, and that will be very difficult."

Of about a million Somalis in need of food, about 640 000 are found in the southern region, which is beset by high morbidity and malnutrition rates, chronic food insecurity, crop failure, insecurity and flooding.

Somalia, a nation of up to 10 million people, has been without a functioning government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre plunged the Horn of Africa country into anarchy and violence.

Pirates taking advantage of the unpatrolled coast, have attacked 32 vessels in and around Somali waters since mid-March, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

- AFP