UN launches three-month drive to feed 100,000 Iranian quake survivors

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today announced the launch of a three-month emergency operation to feed 100,000 victims of the earthquake that devastated the Iranian city of Bam two weeks ago.

"Most people have lost family members, their homes and all their belongings,” WFP's Representative in Iran, Marius de Gaay Fortman, said of the disaster, which killed more than 30,000 people, left 30,000 injured and destroyed 85 per cent of the area’s buildings including hospitals and schools. “The food WFP is sending will fill their immediate needs while they get to the immense task of rebuilding their lives and securing other sources of support."

The $2.9 million package is part of the $31.3 UN million flash appeal launched yesterday and will ensure that each beneficiary receives a daily ration of bread, rice, lentils, vegetable oil, sugar, nutritional biscuits and salt. WFP has already airlifted 35 metric tons of the biscuits, which provide each person with 450 calories, to Bam.

Some 200,000 people were affected by the earthquake, which struck one of Iran’s poorest regions, already hit by severe drought in recent years.

"The overwhelming devastation caused by the earthquake magnifies the existing poverty in the region and will certainly affect most of the population's ability to feed themselves," Mr. Fortman said.