Panama: UN food agency provides assistance to thousands of flood victims
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is rushing assistance to about 15,000 people along Panama’s Caribbean coast, where floods following a week of heavy rains have destroyed homes, roads and other infrastructure and left locals in urgent need of help.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is rushing assistance to about 15,000 people along Panama’s Caribbean coast, where floods following a week of heavy rains have destroyed homes, roads and other infrastructure and left locals in urgent need of help.
The number of Panamanians affected by the floods could rise to 25,000, WFP reported yesterday, as aid agencies struggle to reach more isolated indigenous communities along the coast. The national Government has declared a state of emergency in all affected areas along the coast.
WFP is distributing enough high-energy biscuits from its Central American emergency response hub in El Salvador to feed up to 15,000 people for a period of four to five days.
The biscuits, which require no cooking or other preparation, contain fortified food of a high nutritional value and have been made specifically to feed people caught up in emergencies, many of whom have lost their crops and animals, as well as access to kitchens and clean water.