WFP says will airlift food to C African Republic

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) says it will begin flying food supplies from Cameroon to the Central African Republic (CAR) as it is running out of food for the hungry in the crisis-hit country.

“The date when the air bridge will open has not yet been set but it is imminent,” WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said at a press conference in the Swiss city of Geneva on Tuesday.

Byrs said the CAR was very close to a “food security crisis,” and the organization’s food reserves in the capital Bangui were currently “very, very low.”

The WFP spokeswoman said up to 100 tons of food would be carried to the CAR by a jumbo jet, which would make a round-trip daily, with the aim of flying in 2,000 tons of mostly rice by the end of the month.

Carrying food by air was five times more expensive than by road, but the air bridge was necessary as truck drivers transporting WFP supplies have been refusing to cross the border without escorts since early January.

In late January, MISCA, the African-led International Support Mission to the CAR, provided support for ten trucks to reach Bangui.

A new escorted convoy of food supplies was expected to arrive in the capital on Tuesday, Byrs added.

“There is no doubt that we’re on the verge of a real crisis,” she said.

The unrest in the CAR intensified when rebels of the Seleka coalition brought CAR President Michel Djotodia to power by launching an offensive against the government in December 2012 and finally ousting then President Francois Bozizé in March.

Djotodia himself stepped down on January 10 under international pressure for failing to stop months of violence.

On December 5, 2013, France invaded its former colony after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution giving the African Union and France the go-ahead to send troops to the country.