The UN World Food Program (WFP) has delivered 500 metric tons of food aid to drought-hit southern Somalia, the UN agency said here Monday.

The WFP said in a statement that the 16-truck convoy arrived in Wajid, a barren town in southern Somalia on Sunday after a 13-day trip from the Kenyan port of Mombasa because a plague of piracy has closed its usual supply lines by sea to the Horn of Africa nation.

"This is a great achievement, but sadly it was forced on us by the pirates who have attacked our chartered ships and other vessels this year," said WFP Somalia Country Director Zlatan Milisic.

"It is cheaper to bring our food aid in by sea, but we had to resort to this land route because ship-owners feel it is too risky to sail to the south," Milisic added.

WFP operations in Somalia were sabotaged this year by the hijacking of two ships carrying food, which forced the UN food agency to opt for an equally treacherous and longer route over land.

"We have to use land convoys just when the humanitarian situation in southern Somalia is deteriorating so it couldn't happen at a worse time," said Milisic.

Malnutrition rates in many parts of southern Somalia hit by conflict, droughts and floods are already unacceptably high with up to 20 percent acute malnutrition among children under the age of five in some areas.

In a worst-case scenario, the WFP said it would need 50,000 tons of food aid for the hungry in the south for the next six months.

The UN agency said its food aid stocks in Somalia are at an all- time low because of the spate of ship hijackings, including the seizure of two WFP-chartered vessels.

Ship owners are very reluctant to sail to Somali ports and are demanding armed escorts before they do so.

"We urgently need more funding and better access to the affected communities," said Milisic.

As well as using the route from Kenya to southern Somalia for the first time since early 2001, the WFP said it is planning to bring in food aid overland from Djibouti into northern Somalia.

Waters off Somalis are considered among the most dangerous in the world.

The Horn of Africa nation's transitional government last month signed a two-year contract worth more than 50 million US dollars with New York-based Topcat Marine Security to take action against the pirates.

Source: Xinhua