Many are stranded far from their home villages with little food or money to survive and have no family or friends to offer support. Vast areas of southeastern Angola are also in need of food aid assistance resulting from dramatic crop failures. Unrelenting drought has plagued a number of provinces over the past several years.
This year's crop production is insufficient to support a family for more than three months. People must now depend on humanitarian relief to survive. The recent two-week suspension on UN road transportation resulting from an attack on a convoy in mid-September has intensified the need to stockpile commodities in the interior.
WFP food reserves in the provinces are normally sufficient to cover local requirements up to 60 days. However, because of current transportation problems and the increase in beneficiaries, reserve food stocks in certain areas are dangerously low and must be re-supplied from warehouses in Luanda.
Following the cease-fire imposed by the Lusaka Protocol and the opening of roads through demining and rehabilitation, WFP has increased the percentage of food transported by road and correspondingly decreased food airlifts.
Current difficulties with road transport may force WFP to go back to full-scale airlifts at a time when operations are short of funds, and food needs in the country are increasing.
