UN boosts food aid to thousands uprooted by tribal violence in DR Congo

United Nations, New York, 25 November 2009 - The World Food Programme is scaling up its deliveries of food assistance to northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo and to the neighbouring Republic of Congo. WFP aims to feed tens of thousands of Congolese people displaced by a recent upsurge of violence in and around Dongo village in the DRCs Equateur province.
WFP says that more than 38,000 Congolese fled the violent clashes in the DRC last month and crossed the river into the Republic of Congo. Some 14,000 people are also estimated to be internally displaced inside the DRC.
United Nations assessment missions on both sides of the river underline the need for food assistance for people, mainly women and children, who have been on the run for several weeks now.
In the DRC, WFP is currently assessing exact needs in localities around Dongo and is planning to start food distributions in the second week of December with stocks already in country.
In the Republic of Congo, a total of 23 trucks carrying 455 metric tons of WFP food have arrived, as well as 8,000 litres of fuel to facilitate humanitarian assistance.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has approved a new treaty that aims to close ports to ships involved in illegal fishing.
According to FAO, this will be the first ever legally binding international treaty focused specifically on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The agreement will enter into force once 25 countries have ratified it. Eleven FAO members—Angola, Brazil, Chile, the European Commission, Indonesia, Iceland, Norway, Samoa, Sierra Leone, the United States and Uruguay— signed the treaty immediately following its approval.

News story:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33069&Cr=democratic&Cr1=...

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News & Politics

Tags:

• United Nations
• UN
• World Food Programme
• WFP
• DRC
• Food assistance
• Starvation
• Dongo
• Congolese
• Humanitarian assistance
• FAO
• IUU
• Fishing