More Aceh survivors need food: WFP<\/p>\n
Agence France Presse, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The number of Indonesian tsunami survivors needing food aid
\ncould continue to increase as remote areas of Aceh province
\nbecome accessible and more needy are found, the World Food
\nProgram said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The WFP is now feeding more than 330,000 people but has a
\ntarget of reaching more than 500,000 by February, spokesman
\nHeather Hill told AFP.<\/p>\n
\"It's possible that the numbers will go up even more,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"People are very difficult to access... When the roads are
\nrestored we'll be finding even more pockets\" of people needing
\naid, she said.<\/p>\n
The tsunami leveled many west coast villages and severed road
\nlinks with communities that survived. WFP was reaching them with
\nhelicopters and boats.<\/p>\n
Officials told Hill a few days ago that \"virtually every day
\nthey are getting reports of people who are identified as needing
\nfood,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Another WFP spokesman, Inigo Alvarez, said the fact that WFP
\nwas not reaching all potential recipients does not mean some were
\nwithout help. They were getting food from other agencies or from
\nthe government, he said.<\/p>\n
\"I don't think we can say\" that some people were not getting
\nfood, he said.<\/p>\n
WFP is the largest relief agency in Aceh, where about 230,000
\npeople are missing or dead after the December 26 earthquake and
\ntsunami.<\/p>\n
\"We don't see a problem of malnutrition and, in fact, we see a
\ngradual transition from an emergency to a recovery phase,\"
\nAlvarez said.<\/p>\n
\"It has not stabilized yet but is getting there,\" Hill said.<\/p>\n
Getting an accurate count of those receiving aid is difficult
\nbecause people are often moving, for example from camps to
\nrelatives' homes, Alvarez said.<\/p>\n
\"We're hoping that this flux will stabilize within the next
\nfew months so we can concentrate on reaching all the people who
\nneed food, particularly on the stretch between Banda Aceh and
\nMeulaboh,\" Hill said, referring to the key west coast town.<\/p>\n
In an interview with AFP last week, the United Nations' top
\nofficial in Indonesia, Bo Asplund, said he did not believe
\nanybody could be described as desperate for aid.<\/p>\n
\"I don't believe. My understanding is we have managed to reach
\nmost people with some type of relief supplies, even very isolated
\ncommunities with... helicopter drops and things like that. So to
\nour understanding there is certainly nothing like starvation,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/more-aceh-survivors-need-food-wfp-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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