WFP appeals for additional aid to feed hungry

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched an appeal for US $78 million to provide emergency aid to 1.85 million people in Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland in the first half of 2005. All three countries suffered poor harvests this year due to drought compounded by the effects of poverty and HIV/AIDS. "We had hoped to scale back our activities in 2005 following two massive regional aid operations over the past two years but, unfortunately, the crisis in parts of Southern Africa is far from over," Mike Sackett, WFP Regional Director for Southern Africa, said in statement on Wednesday. An estimated 127,000 mt of food aid - valued at US $78 million - will be required for drought-affected households during the first two quarters of 2005. Because of the lengthy time lag between the confirmation of contributions and actual food distributions, it was crucial that donors start responding immediately. "We have to appeal now to ensure that we have the necessary food aid supplies in place in time. If we were to wait any longer it would be too late - and that would endanger people's lives," Sackett added. WFP expects to provide emergency food aid to 1.17 million beneficiaries in Malawi, 510,000 in Lesotho and 168,500 in Swaziland at the height of the operation in 2005. In the meantime, under its current regional Emergency Operation the food agency will continue its assistance to the most vulnerable people in the three affected countries until the end of December 2004. The agency highlighted that the ongoing operation remained underfunded and an additional 32,000 mt of food would be needed to cover regional requirements between October and December 2004. "Donors have been very generous over the past few years and have helped WFP to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in southern Africa," said Sackett. "But there is no time to rest. The international community must stay focused on the crisis in this region, otherwise many of the gains that have been made and, most importantly, lives that have been saved, will be lost."