WFP: 30% of Darfur threatened with food insecurity

The World Food Programme says that 30 percent of the population of Darfur is threatened with food insecurity and in need of urgent aid. The Programme conducted surveys in Darfur finding around 30 percent to be in need of urgent assistance, said WFP Field Coordinator Adham Mesallami to Radio Dabanga. He said that families told the WFP about their inability to cover their daily needs for food. However the coordinator denied there was famine in Darfur and said ‘crop yields are less than they were last year, causing a shortage of goods in the markers in North Darfur and some parts of West Darfur, but it does not constitute a famine.’ He said the planting season couldn’t start as usual in the area, causing the need for the WFP to intervene in May. Mesallami stressed that the WFP is ‘still committed to distributing food to people in need in Darfur.’ 3 million need aidMesallami also revealed that the WFP is planning to assist more than three million people in Darfur and said the body currently provides assistance to around 40 percent of the population of the region, including those internally displaced. He said that the Programme provides food to 600,00 children in schools and around 450,000 children in supplementary feeding centres. Mesallami said the sole purpose of the WFP is to ‘provide food to the needy, wherever they may be unrelated to policy or politics of the country.’ On the basis of this principle he said the ‘WFP has nothing to do with voluntary return of displaced people as they are only concerned with people in need beyond any political considerations.’