Daily Darfur: Supply convoy from Libya to Darfur on return trip has empty trucks raided, looted, and released by varlets unknown

Medical News Today carries news of the tragic difficulties of getting supply systems established for people starving Darfur, Sudan. "WFP Condemns Attack On Food Aid Convoy In Eastern Chad" (Feb3,2k7).

The United Nations World Food Programme has condemned a kidnapping and armed attack on a WFP-contracted convoy in Eastern Chad early on Sunday (Jan28,2k7).

According to the Libyan company which leased the trucks to WFP, unknown gunmen attacked the convoy of 48 empty vehicles as it was returning from Eastern Chad to Khufra, South Libya, over the weekend. The convoy had delivered food assistance to some 220,000 people living in refugee camps in Eastern Chad.

The driver was safely released on Thursday, together with his truck, after his four day ordeal which began when the gunmen stole personal belongings including satellite phones, watches, clothes and other valuables from all the drivers. The booty was apparently transferred onto one of the trucks and taken away, along with its driver.

This is the third armed attack on WFP aid convoys in Eastern Chad in the past two months.

The convoy was stopped 70 kilometres north of Bahai, Northeast Chad, in an area about 600 kms from the Libyan border and a few kilometres after the point where the Chadian army escort left the convoy, as the remaining leg of the journey is deep in the desert, where a criminal incident is less likely to occur.

The company which provides trucks for WFP to send food aid to hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, to Eastern Chad informed WFP that it was freezing the movement of shipments on this route until all 48 trucks were returned. Another 33-truck convoy carrying 850 tons of wheat for the refugees has been in Owainat, 400 kms south of Khufra, the company said, waiting to cross into Chad until the attacked convoy was returned.

"We do not know the identity of the attackers but this is making our work extremely difficult, endangering the life of courageous drivers and delaying food shipments for tens of thousands of extremely vulnerable people," said Amir Ismail, in charge of WFP logistics in Libya.

"We call on all factions in Eastern Chad, and urge the Chadian government to do its best to guarantee the safety of aid convoys and drivers," said Naila Sabra, Regional Director for WFP in the Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

Using Libyan ports and roads as an entry point to Chad - and even to Darfur at one stage - has been a major success story for WFP.

"Many people in Darfur and Chad would have been unable to receive food assistance that we now move through Libya had it not been for this corridor," said Sabra.

The journey overland exceeds 2,800 kms and takes several weeks to complete. Early in January one driver with a WFP-contracted truck was shot but his life was saved after he was medically evacuated by plane.

In 2006, WFP shipped about 37,000 tons of food aid through Libya to Chad and Darfur.

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WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: each year, we give food to an average of 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs, including 58 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world's poorest countries.

WFP Global School Feeding Campaign - For just 19 US cents a day, you can help WFP give children in poor countries a healthy meal at school - a gift of hope for a brighter future.

For further information please go to:
World Food Program: WFP - We Feed People

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