Saturday, February 23, 2013
BY: WILLIAM LAMBERS
The UN World Food Programme (WFP), in a report released yesterday, said "significant pipeline breaks in food" reduced the number of Somalis fed in January. WFP said it reached 723,022 people in Somalia with food aid during January. However, this was only 58 percent of the total they had planned to feed.
Hunger is still a major crisis in Somalia, even with recent reductions in the number of people facing emergency levels of malnutrition.
The pipeline breaks of food impacted programs including school feeding and Mother and Child Health Nutrition. Take home rations were not distributed to Somali schoolchildren because of a shortage of vegetable oil.
WFP says the shortage of vegetable oil will be critical until April and there is also concern of the supply of Plumpy'Doz, SuperCereal and Plumpy'Sup. These three foods help children fight off malnutrition which can cause lasting physical and mental damage.
The WFP program “Strengthening Food and Nutrition Security and Enhancing Resilience in Somalia” faces a shortage of funding for US $ 829 million. The program is schedule to run through 2015.
WFP relies entirely on voluntary donations. It has received contributions for Somalia relief from the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Russia, Norway, Saudi Arabia and other nations.