Report No. 45 of 1998 Date: 13 November 1998
This report includes: A) Central America: Hurricane Mitch (Supplement with EMOP document) B) Iraq C) Democratic People's Republic of Korea D) FR Yugoslavia and Region: Kosovo operation E) Guinea Bissau F) Angola.
>From Manuel Aranda da Silva, Chief, Technical Support Service. Available on the Internet on the WFP Home Page at http://www.wfp.org/ or by electronic mail from Deborah.Hicks@wfp.org (fax 39 06 6513 2837). For information on resources, donors are requested to contact Aleesa.Blum@wfp.org or Marius.deGaayFortman@wfp.org at WFP Rome, telephone 39 06 6513 2004 or 06 6513 2250. The address of WFP is Via Cesare Giulio Viola 68, Parco dei Medici, 00148 Rome, Italy.
PART I - HIGHLIGHTS (Details below in Part II)
A. CENTRAL AMERICA: RELIEF OPERATIONS FOR VICTIMS OF HURRICANE MITCH IN HONDURAS, NICARAGUA, EL SALVADOR AND GUATEMALA (EMOP 6079)
1. Regional a) WFP emergency operation for Hurricane Mitch victims in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador (EMOP 6079) approved 11 November by FAO and WFP, for 116,238 metric tons of food, total WFP cost USD 58.4 million, to assist 1,125,000 persons from 15 November 1998 to 15 May 1999. Full text of EMOP in Supplement. b) Selection of open source information in English on the Web, for updated operational details and news, given below.
B. IRAQ
1. Update - information as of 16 November a) UN agency international staff, including WFP staff, return to Baghdad from Jordan, where WFP had temporarily re-located 28 non-essential staff on 11 and 12 November during stand-off between Iraq and UN over weapons inspections.
C. DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
1. FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission - highlights a) DPR Korea's cereal production in 1998 is estimated at 3.48 million tonnes compared to last year's severely reduced crop of 2.66 million tonnes. b) Despite an improved harvest, DPR Korea will enter 1999 with a large food deficit with domestic cereal production covering minimum consumption needs of the population for only eight months. Import of some 1.35 million tonnes of food grain will be needed in 1998/99, including 1.05 million tonnes as food assistance. c) Adequate targeted food aid will be needed to ensure minimum nutritional needs of the vulnerable groups most at risk by the food shortages and in support of food-for-work activities. d) Agricultural recovery, rehabilitation and development need urgent attention and adequate support to enable the country to produce enough food to meet its minimum needs. On a more immediate basis, attention needs to be focused on improving agricultural input supplies, mainly fertilisers, spare parts and fuel.
D. FR YUGOSLAVIA AND REGION: KOSOVO OPERATIONS
1. Update - information as of 12 November, updated 15 November a) WFP food delivered to 5,000 war-affected individuals (most previously displaced to Montenegro) living in isolated villages in the Rugova canyon in far west of Kosovo. b) According to local NGO, the Mother Teresa Society (MTS), IDPs registered with them currently 322,000 while the number of beneficiaries (returnees and host families) reached is 706,500 (information as of 15 November). c) Increasing number of landmines reported. d) First of the OSCE verifiers arrived in Kosovo on 7 November.
E. GUINEA BISSAU
1. Update - information as of 16 November a) UNSECOORD gives clearance on 6 November for WFP staff to return to Bafata. b) UN mission visits Bafata and Bissau from 10 to 12 November, confirms cease-fire is holding. Government-controlled port and junta-controlled airport now operating. c) In spite of peace agreement, no significant return of refugees or displaced. d) Estimated number of people in need of assistance remains at 350,000. While some IDPs can survive on new harvest, in Gabu, Bafata, Oio and Cacheu urban population worse off than IDPs.
F. ANGOLA
1. Update a) WFP staff member shot and killed on 14 November, while on duty at a WFP warehouse in Kuito. b) Food security situation continues to deteriorate. Many villages have been ransacked and looted of food. Large numbers in the south-east, where major crop failure experienced, are at high risk of malnutrition. c) Road mine accidents continue. UCAH reports half of Angola is inaccessible to humanitarian community due to road insecurity; in areas that can be reached, 489,253 people reported displaced since January, of which 331,137 confirmed.
PART II - DETAILS
A. CENTRAL AMERICA: RELIEF OPERATIONS FOR VICTIMS OF HURRICANE MITCH IN HONDURAS, NICARAGUA, EL SALVADOR AND GUATEMALA (EMOP 6079)
1. WFP REGIONAL EMERGENCY OPERATION
1.1 The WFP regional emergency operation for hurricane victims in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador (EMOP 6079) was approved by FAO and WFP on 11 November. The EMOP is for 116,238 metric tons of food (food cost: USD 31,157,500), total WFP cost USD 58.4 million, to assist 1,125,000 persons (Honduras: 600,000; Nicaragua: 400,000; Guatemala: 65,000; El Salvador: 60,000) for the period 15 November 1998 to 15 May 1999.
1.2 The full text of the emergency operation document can be found as a Supplement to WFP Emergency Report no. 45.
1.3 For updated operational details and news, the following is a selection of open source information in English, on the Web: WFP Home Page at http://www.wfp.org (click on Food Crisis in Honduras and Nicaragua or on individual country pages under Field Operations) ReliefWeb at http://www.reliefweb.int for OCHA Situation Reports, NGO reports, and news wire items The Washington Post and Associated Press at http://www.washingtonpost.com/ The New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/ Reuters via Infoseek at http://www2.infoseek.com/Query (type in name of country or subject in search box, click on News; for reference material, click on Web Sites)
B. IRAQ
1. UPDATE - information as of 16 November
1.1 On 14 November, following the recent stand-off between Iraq and the UN over weapons inspections, the Government of Iraq, through a letter to the UN Secretary-General, expressed its willingness to resume working with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) and to allow them to perform their normal duties in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council.
1.2 Upon instruction from the UN Secretary-General, UN agency international staff, including WFP staff, began to return to Baghdad from Amman, Jordan on Monday, 16 November. WFP had temporarily re-located twenty-eight non-essential staff from Baghdad to Amman on 11 and 12 November. WFP essential staff remained in Baghdad throughout the crisis to carry out core programme duties and to support the programme in the north of Iraq where an additional nineteen WFP international staff have continued to work in their respective duty stations.
1.3 Food distribution and a reduced level of observation continued throughout the recent crisis. Distributions in the centre and south of the country are conducted by the Government of Iraq. In the northern autonomous governorates, WFP staff are responsible for distribution of food to 3.1 million people through the oil-for-food agreement.
1.4 Inspectors from the UN-contracted Lloyds Register are set to return to Iraq on Monday 16 November, allowing for a quick resumption of the authentication procedures required for commodities arriving in Iraq under the oil-for-food agreement. The withdrawal of 54 inspectors from Lloyds Register posts in Iraq on 13 November had led to a temporary interruption in the arrival of commodities, which are expected to be cleared within the next few days.
C. DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
1. FAO/WFP CROP AND FOOD SUPPLY ASSESSMENT MISSION
1.1 The following is a summary of selected findings, relating to food security and food aid needs, of the FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment mission to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea between 10 and 27 October, abstracted from the Special Report issued 12 November 1998. The full text of the report can be found on the FAO Web site at http://www.fao.org - click on Economics, GIEWS, Special Reports.
1.2 The Mission found that though there had been some recovery in this year's harvest over that of last year, the food supply outlook for 1998/99 (November 1998 to October 1999) is bleak. Total 1998/99 cereal production is forecast at 3,480,000 tonnes. DPR Korea will need to import 1,354,000 tonnes during the year, of which the country may succeed in commercially importing only some 300,000 tonnes. To satisfy minimum consumption requirements of the population, 1,054,000 tonnes of cereal food aid will be required.
1.3 The total volume of food assistance recommended is 480,000 tonnes for 1998/99, for distributions to children in nurseries, kindergartens, children centres and primary schools, resident patients in hospitals and pregnant and nursing women and for food-for-work activities in support of the recovery of agricultural sector. This recommendation is based on the assessed needs of 171 of the 211 counties to which the donor community is expected to have access to monitor its assistance. The volume of assistance will be adjusted according to access.
1.4 Of the targeted food assistance needed for 1998/99, 120,000 tonnes cereals remain to be resourced, for utilization by October 1999.
1.5 The Mission recommends that of the overall 1998/99 deficit of 1,054,000 tonnes of cereals, the remaining 574,000 tonnes be provided as programme food aid and channelled through the Public Distribution System for general distribution to help the population meet its minimum nutritional requirements.
1.6 In spite of torrential rains during July-August 1998, and localized floods which occurred in certain areas, on the whole crop production in 1998 was helped by generally favourable weather. But the potential beneficial effect of favourable weather was largely offset by input constraints relating to irrigation, the shortage of fertiliser, the limited capacity of the country to import fuel, non-availability of spare parts and breakdown of machinery, shortage of pesticides, poor seed quality and limited availability of plastic sheets (for covering seed beds during very cold weather).
1.7 Under the current food distribution system, the entire civilian population, other than cooperative farmers and their dependants, is served by the Public Distribution System through which they receive allocations of cereals (rice, maize, wheat flour, barley, pulses), determined for different categories of population. With availability of cereals precipitously declining in the marketing year 1997/98, allocations to PDS Centres dropped drastically as the year progressed.
1.8 Households have proved to be highly innovative and resilient in coping with their precarious food access situation. Coping mechanisms include intensive cultivation of potatoes and green vegetables, soybeans and sweet potatoes in family plots; purchases and exchanges at peasants' markets; fishing; collecting wild forest food (especially in mountainous areas); eating alternative foods; and saving from remittances from relatives abroad.
1.9 In September/October 1998, the Government allowed and facilitated WFP, UNICEF and ECHO to carry out a Nutrition Survey to determine the nutritional status of children between 6 months and seven years of age. This survey, which included 1,573 children of 6 to 84 months, is expected to provide first scientific and baseline data on the nutritional status of the children in this age group.
1.10 Future food security in DPR Korea will depend on solutions that address the major economic difficulties. In the absence of these, even without natural hazards, the food supply situation will remain highly precarious as the productivity in agriculture falls and the capacity of the country to finance commercial food imports dwindles and barter trade becomes a progressively less viable option.
D. FR YUGOSLAVIA AND REGION: KOSOVO OPERATION
1. KOSOVO - most information as of 12 November, updated 15 November
1.1 On 6 November, WFP delivered food to 5,000 war-affected individuals living in isolated villages in the Rugova canyon in the far west of Kosovo. Most of these people had returned on foot from Montenegro, whose border lies just on the other side of the mountain range. WFP has received reports that several thousand displaced people have returned from Montenegro to Kosovo through the Rugova mountain range over the past few weeks.
1.2 On 15 November, the local NGO the Mother Teresa Society (MTS), which has a representative in nearly every one of Kosovo's villages, released their latest reports on IDPs and affected persons within Kosovo province. According to MTS, the figure for IDPs registered with them is currently 322,000 while the number of beneficiaries (returnees and host families) reached is 706,500. These figures indicate that, as of this date, MTS estimates that over one million persons located in Kosovo have been directly affected by the Kosovo crisis. The UN is currently reviewing its estimated numbers of IDPs for planning purposes.
1.3 On 7 November, WFP delivered the first food aid to the Obrinje area since September when an ICRC vehicle hit a landmine nearby killing one passenger and seriously wounding three others. Last week UNHCR received assurances that the road had been cleared of all mines.
1.4 The number of landmines reported is increasing on a daily basis, as WFP staff and other relief workers expand operations throughout the province. Anti-tank mines were spotted on the main road between Serbica and Klina this past week. The two devices were placed in potholes on the tarmac road.
1.5 Small-scale fighting continues between Serb security forces and the KLA in areas around the province.
1.6 Eleven British observers, the first of 2,000 OSCE verifiers, arrived in Kosovo on 7 November. US Special Envoy Christopher Hill met with leaders of the KLA on 6 November to discuss a draft political agreement that is intended to restore self-rule for the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo.
E. GUINEA BISSAU
1. UPDATE - information as of 16 November
1.1 On 6 November, UNSECOORD gave clearance for WFP staff, who had been evacuated to Tambacounda in Senegal on 20 October, to return to Bafata. WFP staff managed to return from Tambacoumb to Bafata via Guinea Conakry on 11 November (the border with Guinea having opened on 9 November). The border between Senegal and Guinea Bissau remains closed, and efforts by different NGOs to get permission to cross the border have been repeatedly denied by Senegalese authorities.
1.2 Following the peace accord reached on 1 November, President Vieira made a radio announcement on 4 November exhorting all parties to work together toward forming a government of national unity. A meeting of the National Assembly, scheduled for 6 November, did not take place, but the joint committee of the Government and the military junta eventually met on 13 November.
1.3 A mission of UN Heads of Agencies to Bafata and Bissau from 10 to 12 November confirmed that the peace agreement of 1 November is being respected and that the cease-fire is holding. The port, in the Government-controlled area, and the airport, in the military junta area, are again operating, although the airport remains limited to a few humanitarian flights.
1.4 The mission was able to verify a significant improvement of the security situation, but in spite of the peace agreement there are no signs of significant movement of refugees or displaced back to their places of origin. The IDPs are concentrated in Cumura, Prabis, and Safim.
1.5 During the field trip to Cumura and Prabis, the mission was able to confirm that there has not been starvation or famine in Guinea Bissau, despite a low rate of delivery of food. Possible explanations for this include the fact that specific camps for IDPs were not established except in Cumura. All the rest of the IDPs have been accommodated by local families in the smaller towns and rural areas. From a huge warehouses on the way to Cumura from Bissau, damaged during the bombing, more than 4,000 tons of rice were looted by the population. This rice has been utilized by the IDPs for their survival.
1.6 As of 12 November, 20,689 IDPs in Safim and four villages close to Safim have been receiving food assistance since 2 November. The additional 15 villages close to Safim, where an estimated 5,000 IDPs are located, were to receive food distributions by 13 November. In Cumura, where the IDPs have been in camps without proper shelters, they have been looked after by the Catholic mission staff. The number is estimated to be 25,000. In Prabis, the IDPs have been taken care of by the Swedish Bandim project staff, who total 140. The IDPs are spread over 35 villages, in 30 of which food had been distributed since 2 November. The number of registered IDPs was 40,080 people (5,244 families).
1.7 The number of people in need of assistance remains estimated at 350,000. About 100,000 IDPs are now said to be able to survive on the new harvest, but an estimated equal number of people, living in small towns across the country, are said to be in a dire situation for lack of jobs, business activities and as a result of the support they provided to IDPs since the beginning of the crisis.
1.8 The National Commission of Humanitarian Assistance chaired by the Minister of Health has requested WFP to make food available for 181,000 people among the war-affected urban population in Gabu, Bafata, Oio and Cacheu, who lack means of survival. Due to the frequent movement of the IDPs back and forth, it has become extremely difficult to make any registration of the IDPs. The conditions of the urban population appear to be worse than those of the IDPs.
1.9 On 4 November, ECHO held meetings with ECHO-assisted NGOs to review access problems into Guinea Bissau. ECHO organized two flights on 9 and 10 November to Guinea Bissau to transport NGO staff.
F. ANGOLA
1. UPDATE - most information from field report of early November
1.1 Update - 16 November: A WFP staff member in Angola, Mr. Elias Sayala, was shot and killed this weekend while on duty in the town of Kuito. Mr. Sayala, 38, died after being fired on by an unknown assassin at 11:30 PM Saturday, 14 November, while on duty at a WFP warehouse in Kuito in Bie province. No one else was injured in the attack and no food was stolen from the warehouse. The assailant has not yet been apprehended.
1.2 The food security situation continues to deteriorate. Many roads have ceased to carry commercial traffic, or only a very reduced volume. Many villages have been ransacked and looted of food. For the current planting season there are more areas abandoned than the same time last year, due to insecurity and population displacement. Few of the displaced population have access to land, seeds and other agricultural inputs. A large number of people in the south-east have experienced catastrophic crop failures this year putting them at high risk of malnutrition.
1.3 Military operations in several provinces continue to unsettle the population. In addition, attacks by roving gangs have been reported in every province, and road mine accidents continue to take a toll in human lives and major injuries. However, the rate of increase in the number of IDPs seems to have slowed during recent weeks.
1.4 Additional information from UCAH, as reported by IRIN Southern Africa on 16 November: According to the latest report of the Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Unit (UCAH), half of Angola is now inaccessible to the humanitarian community due to road insecurity, and as a result the living conditions of 40 percent of the population is unknown. Although overall the security situation is relatively calm, limited access means that comprehensive monitoring of the humanitarian situation is not possible. In those areas that can be reached, the report says, 489,253 people have been reported displaced since January this year. Of these, 331,137 have been confirmed. The most affected province is Huila with 68,943 displaced, followed by Malanje where 67,504 people have been made homeless. Huambo has the third highest toll, with 36,255 displaced.
Note: all tonnage figures above refer to metric tons
(End WFP Emergency Report No. 45 of 1998 - November 13, 1998)
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