This report includes: A) WFP on the WEB B) Liberia C) Iraq D) Burundi, Rwanda, Zaire and Tanzania E) Somalia F) Angola G) Former Yugoslavia.
>From B. Szynalski, Director, Operational Policy and Support Division. For information regarding resources, donors are requested to contact Ms. B. Karlstrom Dorph, Director, Resources Division, WFP Rome (Ph. 39 6 5228 2500)
PART I - HIGHLIGHTS (Details below in Part II)
A. GENERAL
1. WFP goes on the Web. The site can be visited at: http://guardhouse.unicc.org/wfp.
B. LIBERIA
1. Update a) Security situation in Monrovia continues to be fluid, with days of relative calm followed by further heavy fighting. b) Cross-line convoys from Monrovia reached Kakata and Suhen, Bomi county; cross-border convoys to Nimba/Bong from Cote d'Ivoire planned following a UN/NGO assessment mission to Gbarnga/Ganta.
C. IRAQ
1. Update a) Agreement reached between the UN and Iraq on oil-for-food arrangement on 20 May 1996. WFP to monitor food purchased under the agreement. b) Contributions needed for current WFP operation for 2.1 million people most affected by food shortages.
D. EAST AFRICA 1: REGIONAL OPERATION FOR BURUNDI, RWANDA, ZAIRE AND TANZANIA
1. Burundi a) Security incidents continue in Bujumbura, Cibitoke, Bururi, Kayanza and Muyinga, with localized fighting in Gitega; food convoys possible to both Gitega and Ngozi. b) Discussions over border closure with Zaire on-going. c) Funding for Twin Otter assured for six months.
2. Zaire - Goma a) Further attack on relief vehicles near site of previous ambush of 10 May, in vicinity of Kibumba camp. b) UNICEF estimates number of people displaced by conflict in Masisi/Rutshuru area at 204,000.
3. Zaire - Uvira a) Influx of refugees from Cibitoke slows to average of less than 100 per day. b) Diesel fuel shortage threatens relief operations in area.
4. Tanzania a) Flow of refugees from Burundi continues; over 4,000 registered between 13 and 19 May.
E. EAST AFRICA 2: SOMALIA
1. Critical food shortages in the Juba Valley.
F. ANGOLA
1. WFP studying the feasibility of resuming cross-border operation from Namibia into southern Kuando Kubango.
G. FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
1. Bosnia-Herzegovina: No change in factors affecting food security or the immediate provision of food aid, and supplies sufficient for full distributions in May.
PART II - DETAILS
A. GENERAL
1. WFP GOES ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB
1.1 The World Food Programme's site on the Internet's World Wide Web wnt up on 21 May 1996. On this site WFP will make available general information about the Programme and its activities in emergency and development projects worldwide, including information on disaster mitigation, operations, transport and logistics, resources and appeals. The WFP Emergency Report will be posted weekly; back issues are also available. The site can be accessed using http://guardhouse.unicc.org/wfp.
B. LIBERIA
1. UPDATE (information as of 23 May 1996)
1.1 Monrovia
a) After a relatively quiet weekend 18/19 May, factional fighting broke out once again in the city centre, particularly near the Greystone compound of the US Embassy, where up to 20,000 people are seeking shelter. ULIMO-J fighters pushed the so-called "Government forces" of NPFL and ULIMO-K from their initial positions in Mamba Point towards the Old Bridge. ULIMO-J later in the day retreated to the Barclay Training Centre barracks. Sporadic clashes and skirmishes have continued downtown during the following days. Fighting is also reported in Schiefflin between NPFL and LPC as well as close to Harbel, where the main paved road is reportedly mined.
b) Expanded WFP targeted feeding is continuing in Monrovia to serve an estimated 570,000 beneficiaries in 68 communities, mainly in the accessible Bushrod Island area which stretches from the port to the Virginia area.
c) Full operation for loading of trucks could restart only on 20 May, as the attack on the port of 16 May had spread fear among port workers who did not show up for several days.
d) Between 21 and 23 May, 615 mt of assorted food commodities were delivered to almost 60,000 people in displaced shelters, communities and orphanages.
1.2 The first food convoy from Monrovia since 6 April when the fighting broke out, reached Kakata, some 60 kms north, on 19 May with total 168 mt for distribution to 18,000 displaced and vulnerable groups, the latter including 337 elderly and orphans. The convoy went to Kakata and back without an armed escort, accompanied only by a National Disarmament and Demobilization Commission (NDDC) officer for security clearances. Another food convoy went to Suhen, Bomi county with 46 mt to be distributed to 5,500 displaced by the NGO Concern Christian Community.
1.3 Following a joint UN/NGO mission to Gbarnga/Ganta for assessing humanitarian needs, a plan for coordinated food relief intervention has been prepared between WFP Monrovia and Abidjan. As a result cross-border food convoys are planned to Nimba/Bong counties from Man warehouses in Cote d'Ivoire to deliver 1,000 mt of food per month for targeted feeding (ie, schools, hospitals, vulnerable groups), as well as parallel distribution along with seeds and tools for farmers.
1.4 This operation is being conducted in close coordination with LWS and CRS for transport of food and non-food items and should start on 25 May with an initial 150 mt of WFP commodities for over 32,000 students in Nimba county.
1.5 WFP staff evacuated from Monrovia are being relocated in Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea, to strengthen coordination and monitoring capacity of partner NGOs.
1.6 Backstopping support of the WFP operation in Liberia is maintained through chartered vessels shuttling between Freetown and Monrovia. A C-130 Hercules flew to Freetown with a donation of 13 mt of canned fish to be trans-shipped to Monrovia for specific delivery to hospitals, clinics and most vulnerable beneficiaries.
C. IRAQ
1. UPDATE
1.1 A Memorandum of Understanding between the UN and Iraq on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 986 (1995), which includes the so-called oil-for-food arrangement, was signed on 20 May 1996. Within the framework of the MOU, WFP will be responsible for making sure that the food purchased under this agreement is equitably distributed throughout Iraq. In the three northern Governorates of Dohouk, Erbil and Suleimaniya WFP will be responsible for the distribution as well as the monitoring of the food.
1.2 A WFP team is already in Iraq as part of the UN inter-agency assessment mission. WFP's team is focusing on the food sector and overall transport and logistics arrangements. In the coming weeks WFP's Director of Transport and Logistics Division will temporarily move to Baghdad to personally lead WFP's operations.
1.3 For the next three to six months WFP will continue its emergency operation in favour of its total targeted beneficiary caseload of 2.1 million people most seriously affected by the food shortages. WFP plans to gradually reduce the number of the targeted beneficiaries to between 600,000 and 1 million when the food imports resulting from the oil sales start to arrive. WFP will then only cover people who will fall out of the general food entitlement programme, or whose needs will not be fully met. These are malnourished children under the age of five from destitute female-headed families who need supplementary foods, people in social institutions and hospitals, returnees in resettlement schemes and refugees.
1.4 WFP will need additional donor contributions for the entire caseload during the coming few months and to a reduced but highly vulnerable caseload thereafter. It is important that food is pledged now for stocking up before the beginning of the cold season when needs are greatest.
D. EAST AFRICA 1: REGIONAL OPERATION FOR BURUNDI, RWANDA, ZAIRE AND TANZANIA
1. BURUNDI
1.1 Security incidents, involving many ambushes and attacks, including assassinations of government personnel, continue in Bujumbura, Cibitoke, Bururi, Kayanza and Muyinga. In particular, 40 children and 3 women were killed when armed bands attacked Kiganda commune in Muramvya 15 and 17 May. Incidents in Gitega over the past week appear to be localized.
1.2 With the exception of Bubanza and Cibitoke provinces, traffic on the main roads in the country has been secure, allowing WFP to move food convoys to Gitega and Ngozi.
1.3 A recent confirmation of a Dutch donation will enable the Twin Otter operation to continue beyond the end of May 1996, when US and French funding expire, for an additional six months. WFP has been operating the 20 passenger aircraft since July 1995 when continued road insecurity rendered internal transport of humanitarian aid staff and vehicles extremely risky. 1.4 The Prime Minister of Zaire arrived in Burundi 18 May to discuss, among other things, the issue of the border closure between the two countries.
1.5 Electricity failures continue in Bujumbura with attacks on the city's main power lines in Bubanza province 13 May.
1.6 Gitega
a) Representatives of WFP and UNICEF visited several IDP sites (newly displaced and old caseload sites) in Gitega province 15-16 May and met with the Archbishop of Gitega and the Counsellor of the former Governor. Both representatives agreed that despite tense security conditions, there are possibilities to continue implementing humanitarian assistance in the region.
b) WFP reaches more than 63,000 recently displaced persons in Gitega province over the past month; food distribution to the needy population of the province, estimated at 93,000 and assessed by WFP, local administrations and parochial districts, is expected to be complete this week. WFP distributes the ad hoc ration for a 15-day period to the head of household.
c) Assessments carried out in Itaba, Giheta, Gitega town, Murayi and Nyangwa, and distributions on-going by WFP distribution team in Itaba (7,516 persons), Giheta (362 persons) and Gitega (6,520 persons).
d) Distribution in Gitega town is carried out in collaboration with local authorities due to insecurity and in order to distinguish between beneficiaries of the food for work project and newly displaced. WFP continues on-going reinstallation project for 804 persons constructing houses.
e) Mutoyi, site of last month's massacre of more than 200 women and children, is still a refuge centre for some 8,641 dispersed persons originating from Bugenyuzi, Mugogo, Gihogazi, Munanira and Muhongo.
1.7 MSF-Belgium reports that 20,000 internally displaced persons grouped in Karuzi for the past few weeks have returned to Muyinga. The remaining 45,000 recently displaced persons are gathered in 17 different sites in Karuzi province. Assessment of their needs has been difficult due to insecurity.
2. ZAIRE - GOMA
2.1 Two more NGO vehicles clearly marked with the NGO/UNHCR logos attacked on 19 May, in the same area of the ambush on CARE/UNHCR trucks ten days before, near Kibumba camp. One civilian killed and three wounded. No looting was carried out. As a result, the road north of Goma closed 20 May for one day.
2.2 UNICEF estimates there are 204,000 displaced persons from the Masisi/Rutshuru conflict. CARITAS reports it is assisting 116,000 displaced in Goma and villages bordering on the conflict zone.
2.3 Around 13 May, Zairian soldiers were reported to have clashed with Hunde militia in and around Sake. Thirteen civilians killed and the population forced to flee to Goma.
3. ZAIRE - BUKAVU
3.1 Following the arrest of three alleged intimidators, Contingent soldiers encircled Inera camp, where rioters had threatened the life of the head of the camp. 3.2 Cases of infiltration suspects are repeatedly being reported around Nyantende camp.
3.3 Bukavu received 42 percent less food 13-19 May compared to the previous week. Barge capacity is overstretched as 100 percent of Uvira's needs now have to be supplied from Kigoma in Tanzania due to the border closure with Burundi. 4. ZAIRE - UVIRA
4.1 Refugee arrival from Cibitoke province in Burundi slowed to less than 100 new arrivals per day during the week of 15-20 May; 25,000 have been registered since the beginning of May.
4.2 Due to the continuing closure of the border (Zaire/ Burundi) WFP is looking into the possibility of using the Twin Otter aircraft to facilitate the passage of WFP staff and administrative documents between Bujumbura and Uvira. Currently all transfers are being made via Bukavu. Meanwhile, WFP has requested that humanitarian operations be exempted from the strict border closure.
4.3 Humanitarian agencies operating in Uvira are suffering from a severe shortage of diesel fuel. This shortage originates from the border closure, and also results from a curtailment in supply from Tanzania by Lake Tanganyika. The shortage could affect water supply to refugee camps, as water pumps are diesel-powered. WFP Uvira requires diesel for generators and light vehicles.
5. TANZANIA
5.1 In the period 13-19 May, a total of 3,388 Burundian refugees were registered as new arrivals in the Ngara camps. A further 298 were registered in Kanenbmbwa and 360 in Mtabila camps in Kigoma.
5.2 In Kagenyi and Rubwera camps in Karagwe, the demand for peat has increased due to the increasing number of improved stoves and CARE carrying out its forest protection campaign.
5.3 In line with the 1995 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing, UNHCR is mobilising women refugees to actively participate in the camps and food distribution activities.
6. RWANDA
6.1 The transfer of refugees from the Nkamira transit centre to the Umubano camp (previously known as the Petit Barriere camp) provoked a temporary disruption of the supplementary feeding programme, as no permanent structure for such programmes was in place in the new camp. Since malnutrition rates among refugee children are high, WFP is providing supplementary rations to all malnourished children. Figures remain to be confirmed, but there are reports of a continuing influx of people fleeing conflict in the Masisi area in Zaire.
6.2 The Rwandan Red Cross Society, which was to implement general and supplementary feeding programmes, was requested by the Government of Rwanda to suspend its activities in the camp. Following this decision, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs will conduct the general distribution and MSF/Belgium the supplementary feeding programme.
E. EAST AFRICA 2: SOMALIA
1. UPDATE
1.1 WFP and USAID convened a Food Security Task Force Meeting 20 May in Nairobi to discuss the critical food shortages and an increasing trend of malnutrition in the Juba Valley. All reports indicate that the Lower and Middle Juba Valley regions are experiencing crop failure due to very low rains during April and May; April is usually the month of the heaviest rains of the year.
1.2 The main population affected are the Bantu who returned from Kenya last year. Two plantings have already failed this season and the third failure would most likely precipitate a large migration of the majority of farmers in the region.
F. ANGOLA
1. UPDATE
1.1 In an effort to further reduce transport costs, WFP has fielded a mission to Jamba (Kuando Kubango) to look into the possibility of resuming cross-border food deliveries from Namibia to southern Kuando Kubango province. WFP recently resumed flights to Jamba in this province to supply food after a CARE nutritional survey revealed worrying levels of malnutrition. IOM has appealed for funding to resettle approximately 45,000 displaced persons in Jamba to their areas of origin, mostly in the Planalto region. Food assistance will be required until this resettlement operation is possible.
1.2 Following two assessment missions during which significant numbers of displaced people in need of food were identified in Chongoroi (Benguela), WFP sent its first convoy from Lobito to Chongorio on 22 May. The convoy, consisting of seven trucks, is transporting over 75 mt of maize, 5.95 mt of beans and 3 mt of oil to feed approximately 3,000 people.
1.3 Demobilisation update: Caiundo and Chitembo quartering areas opened, in Kuando Kubango and Bie province respectively, bringing the total number of QAs to 12. Reports indicate that the FAA and UNITA have agreed on a plan to integrate UNITA military into the FAA. As a result of this agreement, it is possible that the demobilization process can start, as planned, in the month of June. Total number of quartered UNITA troops as of 21 May: troops - 30,606; dependents - 39,312; Number of weapons handed in - 22,663.
G. FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
1. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
1.1 The WFP pipeline of basic commodities for Bosnia- Herzegovina, with the exception of edible oil, is adequate for current requirements through September. A complete break in the availability of edible oil occurs in July. There is full supply for August/September.
1.2 Targets for May distribution indicate full availability for basic needs. Distributions in April were close to the 100 percent target in basic commodities, both in Republika Srpska and in Central and Southern Bosnia. There is growing concern over local distribution capacity in the UNA-SANA canton and in Sarajevo, where available food has not been fully distributed.
1.3 Increased political instability reported, especially in Republika Srpska and following dispute over election rules in Mostar. Security conditions in the Banja Luka region are still considered difficult.
1.4 WFP has opened an office in Mostar, and has negotiated to open a second central Bosnia-Herzegovina extended delivery point for the new Travnik canton.
1.5 The WFP/FAO/UNHCR/Donor Food Aid Needs Assessment Mission which visited Bosnia in April is in the process of finalising conclusions, following receipt of the household vulnerability report from CIET.
(End WFP Emergency Report No. 20 of 1996 - May 24, 1996)