Myanmar: WFP food deliveries to resume in Mandalay district
1 Ottobre 2007
Bangkok, 1 October 2007 – WFP has received assurances that government-imposed restrictions on the movement of WFP food assistance in Myanmar will be lifted, officials of the humanitarian
agency have said.
WFP Country Director and Representative Chris Kaye confirmed that the Mandalay Area Military Commander on Saturday issued the transport permit for the delivery of 195 metric tonnes of WFP food
to Lashio in northernmost Myanmar. WFP has therefore scheduled food deliveries to WFP operational areas to resume next week.
Disturbances
Local authorities in Mandalay had stopped all movements of food commodities out of the Division earlier this week, affecting WFP operations in northern Shan and the Central Dry Zone which all
depend on food deliveries from Mandalay.
Disturbances in Sittwe have also had an impact on the movement of food from the port town to WFP operational areas in north Rakhine State.
Operating in collaboration with 22 UN and NGO cooperating partners, the WFP provides food assistance to vulnerable persons in Myanmar including HIV/AIDS and TB patients under treatment, primary
school children in marginalized areas of the country as well as communities in former poppy-farming areas.
A programme supporting the nutritional status of mothers and children addresses acute malnutrition rates that prevail in several operational areas.
