18452: Esser: UN: Haiti's crisis prevents food aid deliveries (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

UN News Service
02/11/2004
Haiti's civil crisis preventing vital food aid deliveries, UN agency reports

11 February 2004 - The United Nations food relief agency today
expressed its growing concern over the recent outbreak of civil
strife in Haiti, warning that the closure of key roads is blocking
the delivery of food aid to almost 270,000 needy people.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it has the food supplies ready to
be delivered to Haiti's north and northwest, where stocks are
dropping in many cities and towns. But WFP also faces a shortfall of
$3.1 million to run its operations this year in Haiti, the poorest
country in the Americas.

The main route used by the WFP to deliver food to the north has been
blocked since last Thursday, when violent clashes erupted between
police and armed groups in the strategic city of Gonaives.

The agency was scheduled to transport 1.4 tons of cereals to its
warehouses in Cap-Haitien and Bombardopolis, both in the north of the
country, to help some 268,000 people, including school children,
pregnant and lactating mothers, HIV/AIDS orphans and others affected
by drought or floods there.

As the agency explores bringing aid to the north by boat, WFP's
Country Director in Haiti, Guy Gauvreau, warned that the consequences
of late deliveries could be grave. "More than half the food required
this month is ready for transport," he said. "If we are not able to
move it in the coming week, food distributions will be disrupted and
malnutrition will rise, especially among vulnerable children."

The warehouses in Cap-Haitien and Bombardopolis currently have some
supplies of food, mostly oil and lentils, but more cereals are
required to make sure that recipients have a balanced diet.

WFP is also concerned about the security of its food convoys. Staff
have reported eight separate attacks on agency trucks since the end
of November, with 61 tons of aid lost as a result.

Meanwhile in New York, a UN spokesman said Secretary-General Kofi
Annan is sending an assessment team to Haiti to look at ways to
increase the world body's humanitarian work there.

"He also would like to give active support on the political side to
the efforts of the OAS [Organization of American States] and CARICOM
[Caribbean Community] to try to find a political solution to the
current crisis there," spokesman Fred Eckhard said in response to
press questions.