WFP said existing stocks will be exhausted by the end of July and fresh supplies are not scheduled to arrive until September. The new donations will be used to purchase 20,000 metric tons of food and pay for shipping and distribution costs. In the meantime, field staff will immediately reduce rations 20 to 30 percent in order to stretch out existing stocks. Irene Lacy, WFP Representative in Tanzania, said the refugees there are particularly vulnerable to reduced rations because so many are already in fragile health and they are still in the malaria season. Pointing out that pulses, or dried peas and beans, have already been reduced from their rations, Ms. Lacy warned that further cuts could lead to violence in the camps.
Continued reductions are extremely dangerous.
The UN food agency is virtually the sole source of food for more than one million people in four countries, providing rations to some 900,000 internally displaced and war-affected people in Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda and to 360,000 Rwandan and Burundian refugees in Tanzania. WFP has been conducting an emergency operation for the victims of the Rwanda genocide since 1994. The Tokyo conference has been also timed to coincide with the observance of the World Environment Day on 5 June. Mr. Toepfer stressed the need to ask questions about the important relationships between trade and environment and trade and development. He also emphasized the importance of increasing cooperation and coordination among United Nations agencies, governments and civil society to deal with environmental issues in an integrated manner.