'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