Insecurity, lack of funds hit U.N. aid to Sudan

Friday June 25th, 2004.

GENEVA, June 25 (Reuters) - At least 300,000 people driven from their homes in Sudan's violent Darfur region may go without food this month because insecurity and lack of funds have hit United Nations aid operations, a spokeswoman said on Friday.

The U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) will probably only provide food to 103 out of 130 sites for the internally displaced, reaching 500,000 of the 800,000 initially intended, WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume told a news briefing.

Government-backed Arab militias, accused of killing and looting rampages, have driven more than one million black Africans from their homes in Darfur, creating what U.N. and humanitarian agencies call the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

"It looks like we will only feed half a million instead of 800,000 because of insecurity and a weak (donor) pipeline," Berthiaume said.

Cash was needed quickly to buy vegetable oil, salt and sugar locally. "It is becoming urgent," she said, adding there was widespread malnutrition among women and children with almost 40 percent affected in one camp.

Sugar and a corn-soya blend, both of which are lacking, are particularly important for malnourished children, although there are enough cereals and pulses for now, she said.

Donors, led by the United States, have contributed just $60 million or 30 percent of the nearly $200 million which the WFP had sought in an appeal to meet food needs in Darfur, she said.

Other donors include the European Union, Britain, Canada, Australia and Germany.

Food is being distributed by road, plane and train, as aid agencies race to get stocks in place ahead of the rainy season.

"We will probably have to do air drops when the rain is at its highest, which will probably start soon," Berthiaume said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell are due to make visits to Darfur next week to spotlight the crisis and meet government officials in Khartoum.

Powell, speaking to reporters in Washington on Thursday, accused the government of interfering with delivery of aid to the internally displaced.

Some 150,000 Sudanese have fled to neighbouring Chad, about 110,000 of whom the agency has moved to sites further inland, away from the volatile border area and cross-border raids.