South Sudan refugees get UN food supplies

New York, 17 Aug – (ANA) - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has carried out the first in a series of airdrops to replenish rapidly diminishing food stocks for more than 100,000 families in South Sudan who have fled fighting in Sudan. A total of 32 metric tons of wheat was flown to refugee settlements in Maban County in the year-old nation’s Upper Nile State, said WFP’s Executive Director, Ertharin Cousin, who had been in the country for two days. There are some 170,000 Sudanese refugees currently in South Sudan, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with more arriving from Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states every day after fleeing conflict and food shortages. Most of the new arrivals are dehydrated and malnourished. Ms. Cousin, who met refugees assisted by the WFP, said that wheat shipment had been flown in from Ethiopia enough to feed 2,100 people for a month, but that the ultimate aim was to build resiliency. South Kordofan and Blue Nile, which lie on the border with South Sudan, have been beset by fighting between Sudanese forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) since last year. The SPLM-N was previously part of the rebel movement that fought for the independence of South Sudan. (ANA)

FA/ANA/17 August 2012-------------