UN food aid agency drops life-saving supplies for refugees in South Sudan UN News Center, 15/8/2012 – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) carried out the first in a series of airdrops to replenish rapidly diminishing food stocks for more than 100,000 people in South Sudan who have fled fighting in Sudan. On Wednesday afternoon, 32 metric tons of wheat was flown to refugee settlements in Maban County in the year-old nation’s Upper Nile State, WFP’s Executive Director, Ertharin Cousin, said in a statement. The UN official has been in the country for the past two days. There are some 170,000 Sudanese refugees currently in South Sudan, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with more arriving from Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states every day after fleeing conflict and food shortages. Most of the new arrivals are dehydrated and malnourished. Ms. Cousin, who has been meeting with refugees assisted by the WFP, said that today’s wheat shipment was flown in from Ethiopia and was enough to feed 2,100 people for a month, but the ultimate aim was to build resiliency. “WFP’s goal is not just to meet the immediate needs of those we serve, but to work to ensure that these mothers can, in time, feed their own children;” she said “Building the resilience of the people is foremost in our minds as we work in partnership with the South Sudanese Government.” South Kordofan and Blue Nile, which lie on the border with South Sudan, have been beset by fighting between Sudanese forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) since last year. The SPLM-N was previously part of the rebel movement that fought for the independence of South Sudan. WFP boss visits returnees: urges south Sudanese to farm Sudan Radio Services Juba, 15/8/2012 – The visiting Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program and a US Congressional delegation visited Returnees at Juba Way Station on Wednesday. Ertharin Cousin, a native of Chicago, together with a Congressional delegation from Washington DC, visited a group of returnees who were heading to Western Bahr El-Ghazal state on Wednesday. “So far my visit to South Sudan has been with the government, it is my first opportunity to come and meet with the returnees and to see the opportunity people have to begin to rebuild their lives. So it is very important that WFP continues to have the support of nations like the United States, which is why we are so excited to be here today with US Congressional delegation because of the support that the United States has provided, so WFP will continue to provide food for those returnees,” said Ms. Cousin. Madam Cousin is urging the people of South Sudan to cultivate food in order to feed their families. “Very much so, our message as WFP is that is that we need to meet the needs of the returnees, the immediate food assistance. The returnees and all the people of South Sudan have the ability to feed their own children, and so we want to provide support for that. For those going, what we have given is that we give a three-month ration to those who have no assets so that they have food, and then we are encouraging them to their receiving land to cultivate their land so that they can begin to feed their families. Okay? ” said Cousin. Early this year, W-F-P and the U-N Food and Agriculture Organization’sestimate suggested that 4.7 million people in South Sudan were at risk of food shortages
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