Somalia Piracy Hampers Food Aid: UN

Danger of hijacking has raised costs dramatically, WFP official says
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 9, 2009 2:22 PM CDT
Somalia Piracy Hampers Food Aid: UN
Workers rest during a lunch break at the U.N. World Food Program warehouse in Mombasa, Kenya on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008.   (AP Photo/Tom Maliti)

Piracy off the coast of Somalia is making relief organizations' work even more difficult, Reuters reports. The UN’s World Food Program  today decried both the hijacking of ships bearing aid supplies—the Maersk Alabama, for example, had 232 WFP containers on board when it was seized this week—and indirect costs, like higher insurance rates and the growing unwillingness of some shipping companies to make the trip.

As a result, it now costs millions of dollars more than it did last year to feed the same number of people, said a WFP rep. "If we have piracy off Somalia making it difficult to deliver food, we will have to cut rations and people will miss distributions and people will go hungry," he warned.
(More World Food Program stories.)

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