World Food Programme Sends Food To Georgian Town Of Gori

In response to an urgent request from the Georgian Government,
the
United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today dispatched a truckload of
food to the conflict-affected town of Gori, where it has been unable to
reach people due to insecurity.



"We understand the food situation in Gori has now become desperate," said
WFP Georgia Country Director, Lola Castro. "We are providing the
Government
with high energy biscuits (HEB) and sugar to meet the urgent needs of the
most vulnerable displaced people in the town." She added that World Vision
International was sending canned meat, buckwheat, pasta and tea with the
same consignment.



Last Wednesday, WFP airlifted 34 metric tons of the highly nutritious HEBs
- which require no preparation - into Georgia from the UN Humanitarian
Response Depot (UNHRD) in Brindisi, Italy. The HEBs, donated by the
European Union, have already been distributed to some 18,000 people in and
around the capital, Tbilisi.



Another flight from Brindisi arrived in Tbilisi today with 58 tons of high
energy biscuits, donated by USAID.



WFP has identified bakeries near areas where internally displaced people
have concentrated, and the agency is supplying wheat flour to make bread
for distribution to the hungry. It is also providing food for soup
kitchens, set up to enable people - many of whom have no access to cooking
facilities - to eat hot food.



So far WFP has provided food assistance to some 34,000 people displaced by
the conflict.



WFP is also playing a leading role in coordinating food assistance and
will
start offering logistical support to other humanitarian organisations,
drawing on capacity from its existing operation in the country. Before the
crisis erupted, WFP was providing food to more than 212,000 people, mainly
poor rural communities, as well as primary schoolchildren, tuberculosis
patients and people living with HIV/AIDS.



Tens of thousands of people have fled South Ossetia since the
conflict
started a week ago. Some 30,000 of them are estimated to have crossed
the
border into North Ossetia, part of the Russian Federation. WFP
is
monitoring the situation from its office in the North Ossetian
capital,
Vladikavkaz.



The Russian Government is providing the displaced population with
humanitarian assistance, including food aid. Through its own on-site
visits WFP has witnessed that Russia's aid effort is coming through
effectively in North Ossetia and that the needs of the displaced
population
are being met. However, WFP remains ready to offer assistance, if
required.



The WFP Country Office in Moscow is in regular contact with the Ministry
of
Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural
Disasters (EMERCOM of Russia) to liaise on the substantial aid effort that
is taking place in the Russian Federation to assist the conflict affected
population from South Ossetia.



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



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