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East Timor needs 15,000 tons of emergency food aid, UN agency says
Also UN report: 20 percent of East Timor's population needs food aid East Timor needs 15,000 tons of emergency food aid, UN agency says Fri, 22 Jun 2007 09:46:00GMT DPA Bangkok - Having lost 30 per cent of its crops this year to drought, plagues and locusts, East Timor will need 15,000 tons of emergency food assistance during the upcoming "lean season," the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday. According to field research conducted by the agency and the UN's World Food Programme, a major food crisis is looming for up to 220,000 East Timorese, or one-fifth of the conflict-torn, impoverished country's population, unless the international aid community provides emergency assistance in the next six months. "A poor harvest this year has worsened the already fragile livelihoods of people all over Timor but especially among the poorest people living in rural and more remote districts," said Anthony Banbury, the World Food Programme's regional director for Asia. Production of maize, Timor's most important crop, declined 30 per cent to 70,000 tons this year while cereals, cassava and tubers were down 25 to 30 per cent, the agencies said. Rice production also fell 20 per cent. The agencies predicted that East Timor would suffer a food deficit of 86,000 tons during the coming months, of which 71,000 tons would be satisfied by commercial imports. "There remains a cereal deficit of 15,000 tons that will need to be bridged through international food assistance," the Food and Agricultural Organization said in a statement released by its regional headquarters in Bangkok. UN report: 20 percent of East Timor's population needs food aid DILI, June 22 (AP): Twenty percent of East Timor's people need food aid after severe droughts and locust plagues battered crops in the troubled young nation, two UN food agencies said Friday. "A poor harvest this year has worsened the already fragile livelihoods of people all over Timor, but especially among the poorest people living in rural and more remote districts," said Anthony Banbury, regional director of the World Food Program. Production of maize, the country's most important crop, dropped by 30 percent in 2007. Rice, cereals and cassava also have been hit hard, leaving between 210,000 and 220,000 people in need of help. An estimated 15,000 tons of emergency food assistance will be needed to avert a major crisis, according to a joint assessment by the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization in March and April. East Timor, a tiny nation that broke from Indonesia in 1999 after 24 years of occupation, was plunged into crisis a year ago when factional fighting broke out between police and army forces. The clashes spilled onto the streets, where looting, arson and gang warfare left at least 37 dead and sent 155,000 people fleeing their homes. Many still live in temporary shelters or with relatives.
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