afrol News, 23 January - A rash of banditry is threatening food supplies to more than two million people in Darfur, raising the possibility that rations will have to be cut, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today.

So far this year, bandits stolen 23 WFP-contracted trucks and abducted their drivers, 19 of who are still missing.

WFP is extremely worried about the fate of the missing drivers and the impact of the banditry on the vulnerable people of Darfur.

“Our main trucking companies now refuse to send in more vehicles because of this upsurge in banditry and therefore we have no one to deliver about half our monthly food relief requirement," WFP Representative Kenro Oshidari said.

"If the situation continues, we'll be forced to cut rations in parts of Darfur by mid-February."

The body's monthly food ration in Darfur includes cereals, high-nutrition corn-soya blend, pulses, vegetable oil, sugar and salt. In addition, each person is given 2,100 kilocalories per day.

Some 40,000 metric tons of food is needed to feed Darfur's most vulnerable people each month, but transport companies refuse to send their trucks back into Darfur.

Attacks on WFP trucks carrying food supplies, abductions of drivers and trucks, have among other crimes has become a cause for concern in recent months. WFP has urged Sudanese authorities to ensure the safety of main routes in Darfur.

Between September and December 2007, 13 WFP contract trucks were stolen or attacked. Three drivers were killed, three others escaped while 10 trucks are yet to be recovered.

As a result of insecurity, WFP could not supply food assistance to a total of 106,000 internally displaced vulnerable people in Darfur last December.

"Without these deliveries, WFP faces a rapid depletion of stocks and the inability to pre-position food ahead of the rainy season, which is due to start in May," Oshidari said, adding that the body is working out what form ration cuts might take, where, and how many people would be affected if the banditry continues.

In 2008, WFP plans to feed up to 5.6 million people in Sudan on a budget of US$697 million. Air drops, which cost four times as much as road deliveries, were phased out in Darfur in 2005 and a massive trucking operation was put in place to deliver food efficiently throughout the region.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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