Report No. 50 of 1998 Date: 18 December 1998
This report includes: A) Iraq B) Angola C) Guinea Bissau D) Somalia E) East and Central Africa: Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, DR Congo and Congo/Brazzaville F) Afghanistan G) UN 1999 Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeals.
>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.
Note: This is the last issue for 1998. Next WFP Emergency Report, no. 1 of 1999, will be transmitted early in the week of 4 January 1999.
PART I - HIGHLIGHTS (Details below in Part II)
A. IRAQ
1. Update - information as of 21 December a) WFP staff due to return to Baghdad after temporary re-location of non-essential staff to Amman during the four day military crisis in Iraq. Staff in the north remained in place. b) Throughout the crisis, food commodities were received from the Government of Iraq at WFP transit warehouses in Mosul and Kirkuk for transportation to Dohuk, Erbil and Suleimaniyah, and distributions were on-going.
B. ANGOLA
1. Update - information as of 18 December a) Tens of thousands of people move to Huambo and Kuito during a week of intense fighting in the central highlands between Government forces and UNITA. Kuito cut off, but Huambo still accessible by air. b) WFP food distributed by resident national staff to the 50,000 displaced people in Kuito using food stocks in place. c) Air delivery of food also continues to Malanje and Luena; some 65,000 IDPs are in Malanje, and 30,000 in Luena.
C. GUINEA BISSAU
1. Update a) Provisional government agreed at meeting between President Vieira and General Mane in Lome on 15 December. b) Significant movement of internally displaced persons back to their homes in Bissau reported. c) The Office of the UN Security Coordinator agrees to downgrading of security phase for Bissau 10 December; WFP staff to move back to Bissau in January.
D. SOMALIA
1. Update - information as of 18 December a) Assessment of 1998 Somalia Deyr crop confirms below average production. Food shortages in Bay, Bakool and parts of Hiraan and Gedo regions expected to increase. b) Further movement of people from Bay and Bakool. Numbers of IDPs in Gedo increase.
E. EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICA: RWANDA, BURUNDI, TANZANIA, DR CONGO AND CONGO/BRAZZAVILLE
1. East Africa: Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania a) IDPs in Ruhengeri prefecture in Rwanda continue to return to home sectors. b) Worsening security situation in Bujumbura Rural province in Burundi; Government appeals for urgent assistance for 30,000 IDPs. c) In Tanzania, WFP drought operations continue in regions of Singida and Dodoma.
2. Central Africa: DR Congo and Congo/Brazzaville - information as of 21 December a) Fighting intensifies in Brazzaville. Fighting south of the city. Railway traffic from Pointe-Noire remains suspended. Of 600 tons of food airlifted into Brazzaville, 300 tons ferried into Kinshasa on 15 December. b) Joint mission to Luozi (100 km south of Kinshasa in Bas-Congo) to assess the situation of the Congolese refugees fleeing armed attacks in the Pool region.
F. AFGHANISTAN
1. Update - information as of 18 December a) WFP Kabul receives further wheat for on-forwarding to Hazarajat for winter emergency operation. b) Of total of 4,000 tons of wheat for Hazarajat, WFP has dispatched 3,300 tons of wheat so far to the affected areas of Behsud I and II, Waras, Panjao, and Sharistan. c) Recent retaking of Lal and Yakawlang districts in the Hazarajat by the Hezbe Wahdat may jeopardize the winter emergency relief operation. Some UN and NGO national staff evacuated from the area. d) WFP food movements into Hazarajat stopped as of December 17, but distributions accelerated using stocks already in the area.
G. UN 1999 CONSOLIDATED INTER-AGENCY APPEALS
1. Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeals launched in Geneva a) Details of the 1999 Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeals, launched in Geneva on 15 December, can be found on ReliefWeb at http://www.reliefweb.int/, for Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, DR Congo, DPR Korea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tajikistan, Tanzania and Uganda, the countries of former Yugoslavia - Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Macedonia - and Albania.
PART II - DETAILS
A. IRAQ
1. UPDATE - information as of 21 December
1.1 During the four day military crisis in Iraq - from 16 to 19 December - WFP maintained an essential staff presence Baghdad and all staff in the north remained in their duty stations to ensure continuation of the WFP operation. Twelve non-essential staff were temporarily re-located from Baghdad to Amman on 18 December and most are now due to return to Baghdad on 22 and 23 December.
1.2 Under the oil-for-food agreement, WFP is responsible for distributing commodities to 3.1 million people in the north of Iraq and for observation of Government distribution in the centre/south. While international observation in the centre/south was temporarily suspended, national observers continued to oversee the distribution of food commodities. Oil exports continued throughout the crisis; however, the arrival of some humanitarian supplies under the agreement were held up at border crossing points due to the withdrawal of independent inspection agents (Lloyds Register). These UN-contracted inspection agents are responsible for authenticating the arrival of commodities into Iraq under the terms of the oil-for-food agreement. The Office of the Iraq Programme has requested Lloyds to return to their posts as soon as possible to ensure an authentication process is restored and to clear the backlog of commodities.
1.3 In the three northern governorates, WFP staff remained in place and continued operations throughout the crisis. Food commodities were received from the Government of Iraq at WFP transit warehouses in Mosul and Kirkuk for transportation to Dohuk, Erbil and Suleimaniyah. General food distribution for the month of December has been on-going in all three governorates using existing stocks. As a security measure, WFP staff in Mosul and Kirkuk - two centres which were targeted during the bombing campaign - worked in their duty stations during the day and travelled to Erbil at night until the crisis was over. Two daily labourers who were awaiting the possibility of work with a company contracted by WFP were killed by an explosion on 17 December outside of the WFP warehouses in Mosul.
B. ANGOLA
1. UPDATE - information as of 18 December
1.1 Tens of thousands people are reported to have moved to Huambo and Kuito as a result of a week of intense fighting in Angola's central highlands between Government forces and UNITA. Some 50,000 displaced people are in Kuito, having fled heavy fighting in near-by areas. Some of the town's residents fled Kuito in the early stages of the conflict, while other people have come to the town in search of safety and assistance. WFP food distributions to the displaced began on 18 December, by WFP national resident staff using food stocks in the warehouses. As previously reported, international UN staff had been relocated from Kuito and Huambo last week. As soon as the Kuito airport reopens, WFP is ready to send in further food stocks. Current relief food stocks in Kuito stand at almost 1,000 tons.
1.2 Commercial food supplies in Kuito remain very limited as many shops have been looted. Produce from the countryside or beyond cannot be delivered to the besieged town. Many people now in Kuito have arrived without belongings, and are in urgent need of food, shelter and other assistance such as medicines.
1.3 WFP can still deliver food supplies by air to Huambo, Malanje and Luena, to bolster existing stocks for the displaced populations. Some 40,000 displaced people are in Huambo, 65,000 in Malanje, and 30,000 in Luena. At least 400,000 people are currently internally displaced in Angola as a whole. WFP currently has approximately 20,000 tons of food in country, enough to continue operations at current levels for at least two more months.
C. GUINEA BISSAU
1. UPDATE - most information as of 13 December, with some updates
1.1 A meeting was held between President Vieira and General Mane in Lome on 15 December, under the auspices of the President of Togo, to discuss the formation of a government of national unity. Agreement was reached on the composition of a transitional government which is to run the country until elections in March. Under the agreement, the supporters of General Mane will have the defence, interior, finance and treasury portfolios while President Vieira and his supporters will hold the ministries responsible for foreign affairs, justice, agriculture, education, health, energy, transport and administrative reform. The government will be headed by Mr. Francisco Fadul, who was appointed by Vieira but is close to the rebels.
1.2 Following the nomination of Mr. Fadul as Prime Minister, which happened earlier, on 3 December, there have been signs of a significant movement of internally displaced persons back to their homes. According to the national committee, more than 200,000 IDPs have returned back to Bissau. Some people are returning to Bissau only to verify the situation, not to settle permanently. A small number of IDPs are still in Cumura, Prabis and Safim. As of 13 December, WFP was planning to deliver 300 tons of rice from Bissau and several hundred tons of food from Bafata warehouse over the following week, to distribute to the returnees.
1.3 From 1 to 8 December, a high level UN mission visited Senegal and Guinea Bissau, composed of representatives from headquarters offices of the Department of Political Affairs, UNDP, UN Human Rights Commission, Department of Peace Keeping Operations, and the OCHA office for Guinea Bissau.
1.4 The Office of the UN Security Coordinator, New York, agreed to downgrade the security phase for Bissau effective 10 December, enabling WFP to make plans to resume expanded activities in the city. WFP staff will be moving back to Bissau in January.
1.5 WFP food deliveries and local purchase: A fourth WFP food convoy from Banjul, Gambia, with 11 trucks, carrying 312 tons of rice, left Banjul on 3 December, but was only able to cross into Guinea Bissau on 10 December, after being delayed by Senegalese soldiers denying the convoy permission to cross the border from Senegal; in Bissau, WFP has purchased 1,000 tons of rice locally; as of 13 December, WFP was preparing a charter party contract with a shipping company in Conakry to ship 200 tons of food to Bubaque and Bolama; in addition to the convoy from Banjul, during the two weeks leading to 13 December two convoys arrived in Bafata carrying 900 tons of food from Conakry.
1.6 A WFP coordinated passenger aircraft service has been in operation since 23 November. Flights run twice per week, and as well as carrying staff of UN agencies, NGOs, and Embassies between Dakar and Guinea Bissau, have brought light cargo from Dakar. The flight occupancy rate is nearly 100 percent.
D. SOMALIA
1. UPDATE - information as of 18 December
1.1 Results of the 1998 Somalia Deyr crop assessment confirm that production will be below average and will therefore add to expected food shortages in the already food insecure regions of Bay, Bakool and parts of Hiraan and Gedo regions. Food needs for the period January to March 1999 are estimated at 11,329 tons, and are expected to further increase, depending on a number of factors, by 25 to 50 percent for the period April to July 1999.
1.2 People continue to move from Bay and Bakool searching for food and fleeing insecurity. Numbers of internally displaced persons in Gedo are significantly increasing, and WFP is preparing a food aid distribution to address the immediate needs of these vulnerable groups.
1.3 WFP has recently completed a distribution of 1,023 tons of food aid in Bay region, representing the FSAU recommended 70 percent ration to approximately 100,000 beneficiaries. Since November 1998 a total of 1,851 tons of food aid were delivered in southern Somalia
E. EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICA: RWANDA, BURUNDI, TANZANIA, DR CONGO AND CONGO/BRAZZAVILLE
1. RWANDA
1.1 Internally displaced persons continue to move out of their makeshift camps in Ruhengeri, moving back to their home sectors for resettlement in new sites. These new sites are planned to allow for maximum access to land and it is hoped that food security will improve in the prefecture, following the settlement of the population and the coming January harvest. WFP is in the process of assessing the new sites and will continue to monitor the food situation in the Ruhengeri prefecture.
2. BURUNDI
2.1 Following a worsening security situation in Bujumbura Rural province, the Government has appealed for urgent medical, food and non-food assistance for some 30,000 displaced persons. In response to this request, an inter-agency mission, including WFP, travelled to the area but security constraints did not allow the mission to visit all the sites hosting the displaced persons. In one of the sites visited, the mission found some 13,000 displaced persons, more than indicated by the Government, all requiring immediate assistance in food, water, health, shelter and sanitation. Fifteen cholera-related deaths were reported in the period of one week and five new cases are begin registered every day. Security permitting, WFP is planning an immediate food distribution at this site.
3. TANZANIA
3.1 Preliminary results from the re-registration and verification exercise being carried out in the Ngara refugee camps point to a 14 percent reduction in the refugee caseload in the area. During the exercise, the refugee heads of family surrender their old cards and are issued immediately with new ones.
3.2 WFP food distributions to drought affected persons in the regions of Singida and Dodoma continue, and monitoring exercises are being carried out to assess the impact of the first distributions at household level. Authorities in both regions have requested additional food assistance and WFP has responded with additional allocations to the most needy areas. The Government is releasing 2,500 tons of maize from the Strategic Grain Reserve for Dodoma.
4. DR CONGO AND CONGO/BRAZZAVILLE - information updated as of 21 December
4.1 Fighting had intensified in Brazzaville over recent days (information as of 21 December), and continues to be reported in areas south of the city. The railway traffic between the city and the port town of Pointe-Noire remains suspended. Some 3,300 tons of WFP food are still blocked in Pointe-Noire and WFP is now looking into the possibility of redirecting these commodities to the port of Matadi, for onward transportation to Kinshasa. Out of the 600 tons airlifted into Brazzaville, 300 tons were ferried into Kinshasa on the 15 December.
4.2 No food distributions have been carried out in Kinshasa for the past three weeks, pending the replenishment of the WFP food stocks. In Brazzaville only limited food distributions were carried out during the week, benefiting 1,915 malnourished children in the city.
4.3 The joint mission that travelled to Luozi (some 100 km south of Kinshasa in Bas-Congo) to assess the situation of the Congolese refugees fleeing armed attacks in the Pool region, south of Brazzaville, reported that some 8,500 refugees are now in the area. Others are reportedly hiding in the forests of the Republic of Congo. The Luozi group, including women and children, are scattered in different villages, hosted by local families. The health and nutritional situation of the refugees are reported to be acceptable but the food situation in the area may deteriorate in view of the increased requirements.
F. AFGHANISTAN
1. UPDATE - information from field reports of 10 and 18 December
1.1 In the Central Region, operations proceeded smoothly over recent weeks, with the Kabul sub-office receiving 2,186 tons of wheat and wheat flour. In addition to the weekly 660 tons of wheat flour provided to the bakeries, WFP also distributed 65 tons of wheat flour and mixed commodities for institutional feeding. In its role of leading the logistics operation for the Hazarajat winter emergency operation, WFP Kabul is receiving wheat to forward to the area. In Kabul itself, in addition to recent heavy shelling of the city which killed 21 persons, five people were killed when an earthquake struck the capital on the night of 12/13 December.
1.2 Out of a total of just over 4,000 tons of wheat for Hazarajat, WFP has dispatched 3,300 tons of wheat so far to the affected areas of Behsud I and II, Waras, Panjao, and Sharistan. Mixed food donated by the Government of Pakistan and managed by WFP is also being forwarded for institutional feeding in Bamyan city. As of 10 December, all WFP teams were in place in all locations in the Hazarajat, with WFP national staff deployed from Bamyan, Mazar, Ghazni, Jalalabad and Kandahar sub-offices. The NGOs MADERA, OXFAM and SHUHADA mobilized by WFP for the winter emergency operation are jointly with WFP identifying distribution points and beneficiaries based on WFP Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) criteria. In addition, WFP has established a mobile maintenance unit for radio communications and for vehicles, which are subject to frequent breakdowns in the difficult terrain.
1.3 However, with the recent retaking of Lal and Yakawlang districts by the Hezbe Wahdat, the winter emergency relief operation has come into jeopardy. Two UN national staff present in Yakawlang were evacuated towards the south. WFP currently has 120 tons of wheat in Yakawlang. Some OXFAM staff working in partnership with WFP in Panjao and Waras are reportedly leaving the area, as are two WFP national staff.
1.4 All WFP food movements into Hazarajat were stopped as of December 17, but WFP is accelerating its distribution activities in Hazarajat using stocks already in the area. In addition, in Panjao and Waras, WFP staff and NGO partners are currently effecting food distribution to registered beneficiaries before leaving their location.
1.5 In the Western Region, despite the closure of the Iran-Afghan border, repatriation by Afghan refugees in Iran to Herat is continuing.
1.6 A report with more details on WFP Winter Emergency Operations for Afghanistan, dated early December 1998, is available on request from Stephanie.Bunker@wfp.org in the WFP Country Office for Afghanistan in Islamabad.
G. UN 1999 CONSOLIDATED INTER-AGENCY APPEALS
1. Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeals launched in Geneva
1.1 The 1999 United Nations Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeals were launched in Geneva on 15 December as a package appeal. The appeal is the first ever made by the UN for several countries at the same time. The presentation of the appeals to donors was made by UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs Sergio Vieira de Mello. The individual appeals are available for on-line viewing in HTML and Adobe PDF format on ReliefWeb at http://www.reliefweb.int/ The original Wordperfect text files are also available for downloading. Appeals can be found at this site for Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, DR Congo, DPR Korea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tajikistan, Tanzania and Uganda, the countries of former Yugoslavia - Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Macedonia - and Albania.
Note: all tonnage figures above refer to metric tons
(End WFP Emergency Report No. 50 of 1998 - December 18, 1998)
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