WFP welcomes food shipment to Jaffna    
[Wednesday, October 03, 2007 - 5.00 GMT]    

World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed the shipment of 3,500 tons of food for Jaffna that will be distributed by the Government and the WFP to persons and families among the most vulnerable populations in the peninsula. The food assistance will allow the Government and WFP to respond to immediate food needs as well as to build a buffer stock before the start of the rainy season. The first shipment that departed Colombo to Jaffna on 24 September was part of a larger consignment of 5,300 tons.
  
"With these first two shipments, WFP will be able to feed some 120,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and economically affected people in Jaffna over the next two months. It will also allow WFP to resume its school feeding and maternal and child health and nutrition projects." said Jean-Yves Lequime, Acting Country Director of the World Food Programme in Colombo.
  
WFP is also running two Special Operations to augment the logistical capacity for the delivery of humanitarian supplies to areas affected by the conflict through the provision of UN-flagged trucks and common logistics hubs and to provide UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) from Colombo to Jaffna, said a press release issued by the WFP in Colombo.
  
The WFP food shipments also include 300 tons of non-food-items for implementation of joint Government/WFP emergency and recovery operations on the Jaffna Peninsula.
  
At the same time, some 5,000 tons of WFP food commodities corresponding to three-month requirements will be dispatched to the Vanni - northern conflict districts controlled by the LTTE - and will allow the Government through the Ministry of Nation Building and WFP to feed some 70,000 IDPs and conflict-affected people as well as school children, children under five and their mothers.