Eastern Congo - Goma Update, World Food Programme

Main Category: Aid / Disasters
Article Date: 30 Oct 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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WFP was able to distribute food to key nutritional centres and hospitals inside Goma on Wednesday, despite tension in the town and conflict in the surrounding countryside.

In an effort to prepare for a potential movement of refugees from Goma, WFP Rwanda has pre-positioned enough food for 2,000 people at the Nkamira transit centre in Gisenyi, just across the border from Goma. UNICEF, UNHCR and UNFPA have also pre-positioned non-food items.

WFP remains unable to move any food at all outside Goma given the intensity of the fighting. WFP hopes that this situation will change quickly and food dispatches can resume, particularly to those displaced in the past few days.

WFP has several trucks loaded with food, ready to head into the areas where displaced people are sheltering north of Goma as soon as it is safe to do so.

In its capacity as Logistics Cluster lead, WFP has loaned five Rubhalls (temporary warehousing) to UNHCR to be used as temporary shelter in Kibati, north of Goma, where the camp number has swollen to about 45,000.

In both Masisi and Rutshuru, WFP was able to deliver 14-day food rations to newly displaced people through most of October, before the clashes intensified to the point where access became impossible.

The key area of Nyanzale (a hilly region in Rutshuru district, west of the Virunga National Park) was not reached by WFP at the start of the month and remains a major concern, given the large number of displaced known to be gathered there.

WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency and the UN's frontline agency for hunger solutions. This year, WFP plans to feed 90 million people in 80 countries.

WFP