WFP Delivers Emergency Food Rations to 40,000 Liberian RefugeesThe World Food Program (WFP) Wednesday announced that it has completed a delivery of emergency food rations to more than 40,000 Liberians, who fled a rebel war in the northern Lofa County, according to reports reaching in Lagos from Liberia's capital Monrovia.Since the increase of armed invasions in troubled Lofa by dissidents opposed to the government, tens of thousands of people have fled the area to the neighboring areas of Bong and Grand Cape Mount counties, locating southeast and southwest of Lofa respectively. According to a statement issued by the WFP, there are at least 30,000 internally displaced people in Bong County and a further 10, 000 in the Grand Cape Mount County. The WFP estimated that about 25,000 have been displaced by the fighting by the end of May. The WFP said that most of the internally displaced people (IDPs) are women and children, who have taken shelter in abandoned buildings, which were partially destroyed during a seven-year civil war that ended in 1997. Since the massive displacement of people from Lofa, the WFP has been providing all registered IDPs with emergency food rations, the statement said, adding that the organization's current resources can meet the needs of the displaced people in Liberia. It is reported that the WFP is helping 280,000 people in Liberia, including refugees from Sierra Leone, people displaced by fighting within Liberia and those returning home after the civil war. |
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