World Food Programme (WFP) has donated 151 metric tonnes (mt) of food items to flood victims in eight districts in the Northern Region to help them rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

The food items comprise 2,646 bags of maize, (132mt), 189 bags of beans (9.5mt), 433 cartons of vegetable oil (8mt) and 63 bags of iodized salt (1.6), and the beneficiary districts are Tamale Metro, West Mamprusi, North Gonja, Central Gonja, Savelugu, Tolon, Kumbungu and East Mamprusi Districts.

Northern Region Office of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), will under the auspices of the Regional Coordinating Council, be responsible for the distribution, coordination, monitoring and reporting of the food distribution whilst keeping proper account of all commodities received at final distribution points.

Mr. Aboubacar Koisha, Head of Tamale Sub Office of the WFP, announced this on Thursday at Kpalsi near Tamale at a ceremony to distribute some of the items to some of the flood victims in the Tamale Metro.

The distribution was led by officials from the Tamale Metropolitan Office of NADMO.

Sometime in August, 2012, the opening of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso coupled with torrential rainfall in September of the same year, caused flash floods in parts of the Northern Region.

Some 10,500 people were affected and over 5,000 acres of farmlands were submerged leading to loss of crops and livelihoods.

The extent of flooding led to a request for food from WFP, by the Northern Regional Coordinating Council (NRCC) following a joint assessment mission conducted by the NRCC, Security Agencies, NADMO, NGOs and United Nations agencies to appreciate the magnitude of the effects of the flood in order to mobilize the appropriate additional support for NADMO.

The assessment concluded that urgent relief assistance including food, needed to be provided to 10,500 flood affected persons for a period of 30 days and it was in this direction that the WFP made the donation.

Mr. Koisha said WFP and NADMO would work together to prevent any losses associated with the operation whilst ensuring that the food items reached the deserving.

He said in addition to the Northern Region, some 20,000 flood affected people in the Upper East and Upper West Regions had also received assistance during the past weeks, bringing the total number of beneficiaries across all the three northern regions to about 30,000 with a support of 443 mt of assorted commodities.

He expressed hope that the assistance would provide the energy and nutrition needs of the victims, contribute to the reduction of hunger and food insecurity which had emerged as a result of the floods and enable the recipients to rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

Hajia Habiba Kasim, Tamale Metropolitan Coordinator of NADMO, who led the distribution team, thanked WFP for the response to the call for the relief items.

She called on other organizations to emulate the gesture of the WFP