War making it hard for WFP to distribute food in Central African Republic

The World Food Programme has disclosed that it is experiencing difficulties in extending food relief to the over 2.5 million people that have been affected by the on-going insurgencies in the Central African Republic

The global spokesperson of the World Food Programme Tomson Phiri told Nile Post in Geneva, Switzerland last week that the failure to extend food relief to the affected persons can be attributed to the limited resources to procure food but also to the scarcity of fuel in the country that has made it diffiucult to transport the available food.

According to Phiri, the majority of the filling stations in the CAR have run out of fuel making it hard to fuel their trucks that are supposed to transport food to the people majorly in the most affected areas.

"Our officials who are supposed to supervise the food distribution in the refugee camps and in areas affected by the war have also failed to access fuel at Petrol stations majorly in areas at the outskirt of the city," Phiri said.

He said the Central African Republic is experiencing the food insecurity because of the unending war coupled with the ongoing degradation of the environment and the high population density.

As they devise means of getting fuel to transport the available food, the World Food Programme is also asking developed countries to consider extending humanitarian support worth $ 68.4 million for purchase food for the affected people of Central African Republic.

The unending civil war in CAR has pitted government troops  against  rebels from the Seleka Coalition and the Anti-Balaka militia.

However, much of the tension is over religious identity between Muslim dominated Seleka coalition and Christian Anti-Balaka.

The war is also over a struggle for control of diamonds and other resources in the resource rich country.

More than 1.1 million people have fled their homes in a country of about 5 million people.