Iraq food aid faces delays

Iraq food aid faces delays

The UN says half of Iraqis will run out of food by the end of April

The first major United Nations food aid is expected to arrive on the outskirts of Baghdad on Friday - but it faces a further delay before it can be handed out.

A convoy of 50 trucks has crossed into Iraq from Jordan, carrying 1,400 metric tons of wheat flour - enough to feed 100,000 people for one month.

But the aid will have to be stockpiled in warehouses on the outskirts of the city until the area can be declared safe.

Our correspondent in Baghdad, Richard Galpin, says the US military has stopped the UN World Food Programme (WFP) from carrying out security assessments of the capital, meaning the agency cannot immediately distribute the food

The help we have promised them is being endlessly delayed

Rob MacGillivray
Save the Children

The convoy is being escorted by US forces however - something which originally the UN would not agree to, fearing it would compromise its neutrality.

Another 100 trucks of food entered northern Iraq from Turkey on Thursday, the WFP said.

But the UN said about 30 of its aid workers were still in Cyprus because US military authorities would not give their flight security clearance.

"This delay is slowing down the delivery of humanitarian aid," said Veronique Taveau, spokeswoman for the UN office of the Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Iraq.

Struggling hospitals

Save the Children has also expressed frustration amid delays over getting a flight into Irbil in northern Iraq.

It has a plane ready to carry enough medical supplies to treat 40,000 people and emergency rations for malnourished children.

But a US military official said no aid flights would be allowed until the area was declared safe.

"The doctors we are trying to help in Mosul have been struggling against the odds for weeks to continue saving lives, but now the help we have promised them is being endlessly delayed," said Emergency Programme Manager Rob MacGillivray.

According to the World Health Organization, the main hospitals in Mosul have been looted and are only operating at about 50% of normal capacity.

A Red Cross spokeswoman said several hospitals in Baghdad had been "totally ruined" by looting. However, the agency said the situation was improving in hospitals in southern Iraq.

The supply route from Jordan is being used for the first time, said WFP spokesman Khaled Mansour.

Aid has also been flowing across the borders from Jordan, Turkey, and even Iran, Iraq's former enemy.

The UN Children's Fund (Unicef) got a convoy of nine lorries carrying drinking water into southern Iraq on Wednesday - the first such crossing in 17 years.

According to the UN's assessment, at least half the population of Iraq only has enough food to last until the end of this month.