World Food Programme Resumes Work in Two Southern Sudan States

The World Food Programme said it will resume food aid to about 240,000 people in the Southern Sudan states of Lakes and Jonglei, a month after government troops confiscated a food shipment to Lakes and a WFP driver was killed in Jonglei.

WFP took the decision after receiving assurances that the army would no longer commandeer food or vehicles, the head of WFP’s office in the south, Leo Van der Velden, said in a statement released yesterday.

The south is scheduled to become independent from the north of the country on July 9. Preparations for independence have been overshadowed by violence, with more than 1,000 people killed in clashes in the south this year, according to the United Nations.

Rome-based WFP plans to provide food assistance to 1.5 million Southern Sudanese this year out of a population of about 8 million.

To contact the reporters on this story: Matt Richmond in Juba, Sudan via Johannesburg at 1999 or pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.