Kathmandu, April 26:

The World Food Programme (WFP) has urged all parties to the present crisis to work together to see that the critical food aid programmes and other humanitarian operations resume, and to work to avert a larger food security crisis.

“The crisis has put vulnerable communities in danger,” said Anthony Banbury, WFP Regional Director for Asia in a statement today. “Children have not been fed in schools, mothers and pregnant women have not received nutritional support and communities have not received food to support their poorest members. We hope that current political developments will allow us to quickly resume food deliveries and distributions”.

Saying that a “solution to the political-security crisis must be consolidated as soon as possible” so that the poorest of Nepal do not suffer as a result of this crisis, Banbury said with road travel severely curtailed, schools shut and major cities under curfew for the last three weeks, the UN World Food Programme in Nepal has not been able to deliver critically needed food aid to communities around the country, including to over half a million school children.

The WFP also said while more than 1,00,000 Bhutanese refugees living in eastern Nepal have been receiving supplies after WFP appealed to all parties to allow safe passage to food convoys travelling to the region, most operations in other parts of Nepal have come to a standstill in the last few weeks. Before this political crisis, WFP was providing food to over a million persons living in food insecure areas of the country.

The statement further said that since January, WFP has pre-positioned emergency supplies and equipment for immediate use in Nepal should political crisis or natural disaster result in extended food shortages in Kathmandu and elsewhere.

“Food aid is critically needed at this time of year when households in many districts have to reduce the number of meals in order to cope with the lean agricultural season,” said Jean-Pierre de Margerie, acting WFP Country Director in Nepal.

According to the statement, as well as providing food to children in schools, WFP runs food-for-work programmes that provide rations to 3,00,000 people, allowing communities where food is scarce to build roads to access markets and nearby towns.