BLANTYRE, Oct 26, 2007 (AFP) - The UN World Food Programme announced Friday it plans to provide some 1.2 million Malawians including those suffering from HIV and AIDS with basic food commodities worth 103 million dollars.
Don Scalpelli, WFP country director in Malawi, said the feeding project part of a relief and recovery operation will start in January 2008 and run through to December 2010, costing 103 million dollars (72 million euros).
But Scalpelli said the programme was currently facing a critical funding shortfall of 18 million dollars or 41,000 tons from January to June 2008, to ensure a "successful start-up period".
"The operation will provide assistance throughout the country to food-insecure populations suffering from the effects of natural disasters and aid individuals affected by HIV/AIDS, especially those suffering from poor nutrition," Scalpelli said in a statement.
"The programme will target more than 1.2 million people each year with basic food commodities and will require an estimated 215,000 metric tons of food totalling 103 million US dollars over the three-year period."
Food security is a pressing issue in this impoverished southern African nation, also hit by the AIDS pandemic which afflicts around 14 percent of the strong 12 million population.
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