UN scales up food assistance to Philippines war victims

New York, Aug 29 (PTI) The UN World Food Programme (WFP)
is scaling up food assistance to more than 2,20,000 people
displaced in a fight between Philippine government troops and
forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in southern
Mindanao.

The agency is delivering nearly 1,000 metric tons of rice
– around one month's ration – to civilians caught up in the
conflict, UNWFP announced Thursday.

"WFP is responding to a request from the Government to
provide food assistance to meet urgent needs among the
hundreds of thousands of people affected by the sudden upsurge
in violence in southern Mindanao," the programme's Philippines
Director Stephen Anderson said.

"We have rice stocks at a warehouse in Cotabato, close to
the affected area, and we've acted quickly to move food out to
where it is most needed," he said.

WFP has so far dispatched some 650 metric tons of rice to
160,000 displaced families of Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte
and North Cotabato. Another 250 metric tons of rice is being
delivered to some 60,000 people in the provinces of
Maguindanao and Shariff Kabunsuan, who have been newly
displaced by the conflict.

Staff from the agency's sub-offices in Iligan and
Cotabato City are assessing areas affected by the conflict to
figure out a long-term and targeted response to the upsurge
in violence in Mindanao. PTI