WFP、ベイルート南部で食糧配給（英文のみ）

WFP FOOD DISTRIBUTED IN BEIRUT’S BATTERED SOUTHERN SUBURBS

BEIRUT - Municipal workers today distributed food rations from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to vulnerable families in Beirut’s southern suburbs where thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed in 33 days of conflict between Israel and Hizbollah.

In close coordination with WFP, municipal officials today handed out packets of WFP vegetable oil, lentils, canned vegetables and high-energy biscuits in Haret Hreik - one of the suburbs worst-hit by Israeli bombardments until a cessation of hostilities was declared on 14 August.

The rations were in addition to distributions earlier this week in Haret Hreik of traditional Lebanese bread baked locally with wheat flour provided by WFP for families who cannot bake their own bread because their apartments were no loner habitable or electricity and water supplies were still cut.

Authorities in all four municipalities in south Beirut estimate they will hand out WFP rations to more than 100,000 people over the coming weeks. Distributions are monitored by WFP staff.

WFP has so far dispatched a total of 4,195 tons of wheat flour, canned food, lentils, vegetable oil, pasta and biscuits to those in need. Because of widespread shortages of fuel and clean water in the worst-hit areas, many people are unable to cook. Where possible, WFP gives wheat flour to bakeries to produce bread for those who are food insecure.

Beirut’s crowded southern suburbs, largely home to members of Lebanon’s Shia community, were subjected to intense bombing during the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah. Hundreds of people were killed and tens of thousands fled as bombs hit densely populated neighbourhoods.

Some streets remain intact but, in places, mounds of concrete and rubble are all that remain of 10-storey apartment blocks. In the debris are the remains of people’s belongings -- broken furniture, twisted kitchen appliances and pieces of clothing.

Bulldozers and dump trucks are, however, hard at work, clearing the narrow streets to allow greater access. Despite the devastation, tens of thousands of people have ventured back in the last two weeks of peace and, where possible, are settling back into their homes.

“I’m heartened to see people who have been through so much returning to their neighbourhoods,” said Naila Sabra, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, after a recent visit to Haret Hreik. “These people who rushed back to their areas only to find their homes destroyed or badly damaged need shelter, water, food in the short-term. WFP is providing the food and helping ensure other humanitarian assistance reaches them by transporting it into and within Lebanon.”

“With the ceasefire and the help of our generous donors, aid is reaching more and more people every day. But we are going to have to provide more assistance in the weeks ahead until the most vulnerable have their daily needs met and the focus turns to longer-term reconstruction,” Sabra added.

Since the start of its emergency operation in Lebanon on 23 July, WFP food has reached some 570,000 people in Lebanon plus 150,000 displaced Lebanese in Syria before they returned home to Lebanon - for a total of 720,000 people. Most received a two-week ration either in the place where they sought refuge during the fighting or following their return to their home areas.

Relative peace since August 14 has allowed WFP to rapidly increase food deliveries to the hardest-hit villages and towns in southern Lebanon despite destroyed roads and bridges. To date, WFP has dispatched more than 2,700 tons of food in Lebanon in the two and a half weeks since the cessation of hostilities - compared with 1,495 tons in the three-week period leading up to the ceasefire.

WFP is currently revising downwards its three-month US$21 million Emergency Operation to provide food for 500,000 displaced people in Lebanon because most have returned to their home areas. For the same reason, it is also revising its US$37 million Special Operation for Logistics serving all UN agencies and their partners.

To date, WFP has confirmed contributions of US$10.8 million for its Emergency Operation to provide food aid. Donors include Germany (US$2.6 million), Saudi Arabia (US$2 million), the European Commission (US$$1.28 million), France (US$1.28 million), Australia (US$1 million), Canada (US$885,000), the United States (US$572,000), Japan (US$500,000), Luxembourg (US$314,000), Greece (US$179,000), Denmark (US$168,000) and Singapore (US$25,000).

Contributions to WFP’s Special Operation for Logistics so far have reached US$17.8 million. Donors include the European Commission (US$3.8 million), the United States (US$2.8 million), the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (US$2.5 million), the Netherlands (US$1.8 million), France (US$1.28 million), Australia (US$1.24 million), Norway (US$1.1 million), the United Kingdom (US746,000), Denmark (US$673,000), Canada (US$664,000), Spain (US$628,000) and Germany (US$510,000).

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Video and photo images are available. Please contact Jonathan Dumont at jonathan.dumont@wfp.org for video images and Rein Skullerud at rein.skullerud@wfp.org for photos.

WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: each year, we give food to an average of 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs, including 58 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world's poorest countries. WFP -- We Feed People. Visit our website: www.wfp.org

For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
David Orr, WFP/Beirut, Mob +961-70973964, +963-98-4044-83
Mia Turner, WFP/Cairo, Tel. +20-2-5281730, Mob. +20-122455769
Christiane Berthiaume, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41-22-9178564, Cell. +41-792857304
Ellen Gustafson, WFP/New York, Tel. +1-917 367 5070, Mob. +1917 6171276, gustafsone@un.org
Greg Barrow, WFP/London, Tel. +44 207 240 9001, Cell. +44-7968008474
Cécile Sportis, WFP/Paris, Tel. +33-1-4331-4660, Cell. +33-6161-68266