Sierra Leone food supplies 'in danger'

UN says war prevents food distribution to 34,000 families

The United Nations has warned that the intensified fighting in Sierra Leone is seriously affecting food production and delivery of international aid.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said the deteriorating security situation had made it impossible to distribute food to 34,000 families in urgent need of supplies.

A spokesman for the WFP said the fighting had come in the middle of the planting season - what he described as the worst possible time.

Thousands of families were displaced by the fighting

"Many farmers have been displaced and many others lack the seeds and tools which would enable them to start cultivating before the heavy seasonal rains set in soon," said Patrick Buckley, the WFP representative in Sierra Leone.

"In the coming weeks farming families will quickly exhaust the small food stocks they spared and they might resort to the consumption of their seed supplies," Mr Buckley warned.

The worst affected areas are the rice-producing centres of Kambia and Bombali in northern Sierra Leone, the UN said.

With aid agencies finding it too dangerous to work in large parts of northern and central Sierra Leone, the WFP says it is very difficult to get an overall picture of the country's humanitarian needs.

Preparing for war

The situation may deteriorate further.

In the coming weeks farming families will quickly exhaust the small food stocks they spared and they might resort to the consumption of their seed supplies

Patrick Buckley, WFP spokesman

The BBC correspondent in Freetown, Barnaby Phillips says that the Sierra Leonean Government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels are both preparing for a resumption of full-scale war.

A senior government source confirmed that the army has been advancing northwards.

The country's information minister, Julius Spencer, says the government is still considering the fate of the captured RUF leader, Foday Sankoh, whose forces continue to hold 334 UN peacekeepers.

The rebels have demanded freedom for Mr Sankoh, who was detained on Wednesday and was taken by the government to an undisclosed location.

Mr Spencer says the government will not bow to rebel demands that Mr Sankoh be released. "It's out of the question. It's not possible," he said.

The RUF must disarm voluntarily, and immediately, or be made to disarm involuntarily

Jesse Jackson

Mr Spencer's comments support the stance of international mediators who have told the RUF rebels that their leader would not be set free in return for the release of the UN peacekeepers.

United States' special envoy, Jesse Jackson, denounced the "terror tactics" of the rebels and called on them to immediately release all the peacekeepers.

"The RUF must disarm voluntarily, and immediately, or be made to disarm involuntarily," Mr Jackson said on Saturday at a news conference in neighbouring Liberia.

Mr Jackson said that Liberia's President Charles Taylor had assured him of his readiness to protect the integrity of the democratic government in Sierra Leone.