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Chad: France Completes Airlift of Food to Refugee Camps

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
NEWS
September 14, 2004
Posted to the web September 14, 2004
Dakar
French military planes have completed an airlift of nearly 200 tonnes of food
supplements for malnourished Sudanese refugees living in camps in eastern Chad,
the UN World Food Programme said on Tuesday.
WFP said 162 tonnes of priority foods, such as sugar and protein-rich corn soya
blend, were flown from N'djamena, the capital of Chad, to Abeche, the main town
in the east of the country, from where the food was distributed to nearby
refugee camps.
The airlift began in early August and ended last week with the dispatch of a
further 36 tonnes of food from N'djamena to Goz Beida, a town 210 km south of
Abeche, it added.
The airlift became necessary because heavy rain since July has made most of the
dirt roads in eastern Chad impassible.
"This contribution by the French government has allowed WFP to keep a steady
flow of food moving to the refugee camps," said WFP Country Representative
Philippe Guyon Le Bouffy.
"Delivering food aid in eastern Chad is a huge logistical challenge every step
of the way, especially during the rainy season, and we appreciate this
exceptional service to help us in that mission," he added.
Nearly 200,000 refugees from Sudan's troubled Darfur region have fled to
eastern Chad. Most of them now live in a chain of nine camps established by
international relief agencies at least 50 km away from the frontier.
Last month, WFP launched a blanket feeding programme to reduce high levels of
malnutrition detected in the refugee camps. This aims to provide supplements of
especially nutritious food, such as sugar and corn soya blend, to more than
50,000 children, pregnant women and nursing mothers.
Most food aid to the refugee camps in eastern Chad is trucked in from the
Atlantic port of Douala in Cameroon. However, since the annual rainy season has
made the roads in southern Chad all but impassible, WFP has resorted to
trucking food aid across the Sahara desert from Libya as well.
The first trial food convoy from the Libyan port of Benghazi on the
Mediterranean, arrived in eastern Chad last week carrying 440 tonnes of wheat
flour. The next trans-Sahara convoy from Libya is expected to leave in October.

   

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