Central America: UN food agency set to provide aid to 400,000 drought victims

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is set to provide food to more than 400,000 people in Central America, where many have lost almost all of their crops due to the severe drought affecting the region, the agency reported today.

Of an estimated 1.4 million people affected by the drought, about 776,000 are facing critical food security problems, WFP said following a field evaluation conducted by the agency and regional governments to determine the most vulnerable populations in need of help.

"We can only assist a little over half of the vulnerable population most affected by this food crisis," said Francisco Roque Castro, WFP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. "Our hands are tied because we do not have the resources required to help the rest of the vulnerable population urgently in need of assistance."

WFP said it needs at least 16,500 metric tonnes of food to provide three months assistance to the most vulnerable people, especially women and children.

The beneficiaries of WFP's aid are producers of small self-consumption crops of beans and corn. The food reserves have been decimated in the past five years, first by the drought resulting from El Niño, followed by flooding from Hurricane Mitch and again by drought the past two years.