UN prioritizes $1 billion more in food deliveries for Iraq

Food contracts worth more than $1 billion have been prioritized for delivery to Iraq in the past week following consultations involving the United States-run Coalition Provisional Authority, Iraqi experts and the United Nations, the UN Office of the Iraq Programme (OIP) announced today.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) will work directly with contractors to expedite shipments of most of the prioritized items, including rice, milk powder and sugar, according to the OIP.

Since 13 August, OIP Executive Director Benon Sevan has been in Iraq to discuss the closure and handover arrangements for the Oil-for-Food" programme, which is being phased out by 21 November. The operation allowed Saddam Hussein's sanctions-bound government to sell oil for food and humanitarian supplies, serving as the sole source of sustenance for 60 per cent of Iraq's estimated 27 million people.

Meanwhile, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is helping to improve water and medical services in villages where displaced Arabs have returned under a programme to stabilize returnee communities in northern Iraq. This marks an extension of UNHCR's assistance that had been previously limited to Kurds.

"The conflicts in Iraq have affected all communities. We believe they should all receive assistance in an even-handed fashion," said Pierre Francois Pirlot, UNHCR's regional coordinator for Northern Iraq.

UNHCR estimates that 800,000 people have been displaced internally in Iraq by conflicts and the previous expulsions of Iraqi Kurds. Most of them are living in poor conditions in collective centres and abandoned buildings. Since the fall of the previous government, some have begun returning to their original homes.

On the external front, the second UN-assisted convoy of some 250 Iraqi returnees from Saudi Arabia's Rafha camp arrived back in southern Iraq on Saturday. Their return had been postponed by a few days due to unrest in Basra last week.