'Drought-hit E. Timor needs food aid'

'Drought-hit E. Timor needs food aid'

EAST TIMOR: Drought-hit highland villagers in East Timor will
need US$2.7 million in emergency food aid in the coming months,
the World Food Program said on Tuesday.

Two years of drought has cut maize production by 30 percent,
leaving subsistence farmers in East Timor vulnerable to food
shortages, the United Nations agency said, appealing for food
aid.

Large numbers of East Timorese "are eating only one or at most
two meals a day, and the meals are smaller," country director
Mohamed Saleheen said in a statement.

The WFP plans to give 25,000 families a 55-kilogram (120
pound) monthly food ration from November until March, when the
harvest begins.

East Timor gained its independence in May 2002, three years
after a UN-organized referendum triggered a violent split from
former occupier Indonesia.

East Timor, one of the world's poorest nations, suffers
frequent food shortages. -- AP