UN air drops food in S Sudan

The UN food agency on Wednesday staged a rare air drop of food to thousands of desperate refugees in South Sudan stranded by floods, officials said.Thirty-two tonnes of wheat were flown from a base in Ethiopia to refugee settlements in South Sudan's Upper Nile state where more than 100,000 people have fled fighting across the border in Sudan, the World Food Programme (WFP) said. More emergency flights will follow to Upper Nile and Unity states in coming weeks, WFP spokeswoman Challis McDonough told AFP from Juba. It is the first time in more than three years that the WFP has dropped food from the air. "It is never WFP's first choice and this is a sign of the increasing urgency," said McDonough, who added that about two-thirds of Upper Nile was inaccessible because of flooding in the rainy season. WFP executive director Ertharin Cousin, who is in Juba, said in a statement there would be more air drops "to replenish rapidly diminishing food stocks" for refugees from fighting in Sudan's South Kordofan and Blue Nile states. There are more than 100,000 refugees in Upper Nile and more than 50,000 in Unity, according to UN agencies. The first supply will feed 2,100 people for one month. More air drops and river barges will be used to send hundreds more tonnes of food to the stranded refugee camps, said McDonough. South Sudan, which broke from Sudan in July last year and is one of the world's poorest nations, has barely 100 miles (160 kilometers) of paved road. Rebels have been fighting Sudanese government troops in Kordofan and Blue Nile for more than a year, sparking the refugee exodus. Sudan's government has severely restricted international access to the conflict zone.