Fuel shortage hampers aid deliveries to southern Sudan: WFP

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said Tuesday it has been forced to cut its aid deliveries at the worst time of the year to southern Sudan due to crippling shortage of jet fuel.

In a statement issued here, the UN agency said the fuel shortage has slashed its ability to airlift and airdrop food aid in Sudan at the height of the annual hunger season.

"This could not have happened at a worse time for the people of Sudan," said WFP Country Director Ramiro Lopes da Silva in the statement.

Lopes da Silva said supplies of JetA1 fuel were short even before Sudan closed its Khartoum refinery for maintenance in July.

"That together with slow deliveries of fuel, a shortage of tankers, limited storage and high demand prevented WFP from bridging the gap," he said.

WFP said the shortage of JetA1 fuel was the major reason why it only delivered 1,678 tons of food aid by air from El Obeid to the south in August against a target of 11,692 tons.

It had planned in August to deliver 20,700 tons of food for 1.3 million people in southern Sudan by air, road and river.

But by the end of the month only 10,600 tons of food had reached 128 distribution centers, "51 percent of the planned deliveries for the month" mainly from Lokichoggio in northwestern Kenya and by road via the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

"This is a tragedy for hundreds of thousands of people. Supplies of JetA1 were short even before the refinery closure. That pushed us over the edge. We tried everything we could to get sufficient supplies in time, but the demand was simply too great," Lopes da Silva said.

The WFP said it had hoped to move 11,692 tons of food from there El Obeid to Northern Bahr El Ghazal, Western Bahr el Ghazal, the Nuba Mountains and parts of Upper Nile in August but only managed to deliver 1,678 tons.

"Bringing food in by air is relatively costly, but with the rainy season and lack of roads in the south as well as late arrival of donor funds curtailing pre-positioning -- we had no alternative at this time of year but to rely on airdrops and airlifts," Lopes da Silva said.

The Khartoum refinery is the only one in Sudan to produce JetA1.

The shortage of JetA1 is persisting into September and also hampered deliveries of food aid to the Darfur region of western Sudan where the WFP is feeding more than 2 million people, it warned.

But the WFP said the impact was hardest in the south, where it is highly concerned by malnutrition in peaking toward the end of the annual hunger season and a funding shortfall for its operations.

Source: Xinhua