More funds needed for UN to feed displaced Azerbaijanis

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today appealed to donors for more contributions to cover the last few months of a $15.9 million operation to feed tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Azerbaijan.

WFP started operations in Azerbaijan in 1994 to help over half a million people displaced by the conflict in and around the country’s Nagorny-Karabakh region. Gradually some of them moved to urban areas and became self-reliant, but many who remained in rural areas are still unable to meet their basic needs.

In July 2006 the agency launched the operation to provide those Azerbaijanis, mainly women and children, with 27,000 tons of food over the next two years through June 2008.

Russia recently donated $2 million in food aid, including 217.5 metric tons of vegetable oil and 2,016 metric tons of wheat flour, to help feed 75,000 of the most vulnerable IDPs for four months. But more help is still required for the successful completion of the operation.

WFP is in the process of handing over its caseload of 130,000 beneficiaries to the Government of Azerbaijan, which is already taking care of the first 55,000.