VOA常速英语2008年-WFP: Deliveries to Darfur Continue

By Sabina Castelfranco
Khartoum
15 March 2008

The U.N. World Food Program says efforts to bring food to people in Sudan's troubled Darfur region are continuing, despite logistical challenges. WFP says insufficient¹ security on the roads has led to attacks on their food-carrying trucks by bandits. It also says it has not yet received funding for its humanitarian² air service. Sabina Castelfranco reports from Khartoum.

Every month 30,000 to 40,000 tons of food is required to feed people in the three states of Darfur in Sudan. The food comes into Port Sudan and is driven down to the main hubs in long-haul trucks and then on smaller trucks to the three state capitals of Darfur.

WFP Darfur Coordinator³ Corinne Fleischer says smaller six-wheel trucks are then used to deliver the food to some 350 different locations.

"At the moment we're feeding 2 million people in Darfur," she said.  "This will go up during the hunger season up to 3.2-3.3 million and because during hunger season we also feed a bigger number of people in the villages."

WFP has 800 trucks on the roads in Sudan at any one time. The organization says the main problem it faces is access, because of the patchwork⁴ of small conflict zones and insecurity on the roads. Fleischer says bandits targeted 46 trucks since the beginning of this year.  A total of 33 trucks and 23 drivers are still unaccounted for.

Although banditry is hampering⁵ the operation, Fleischer says food deliveries are continuing for the moment.  She says sometimes the drivers are too scared to make their journeys.

"We're very much concerned," she added.  "Any moment this could change.  If the trucking companies are not getting in or stopping, or reducing their service, then we could within a very short time be faced to cut the rations⁶."

The United Nations peace operation for Darfur (UNAMID) has just over 9,000 soldiers and police officers on the ground and more are expected to deploy⁷ in the coming days. But so far these forces have not been sufficient to improve the volatile⁸ security situation.  WFP Darfur Coordinator Corinne Fleischer.

"If and when UNAMID is deploying⁹ and has the capacity on the ground we will very much count on them to patrol the roads so that security is enhanced on the roads," she explained.

The World Food Program is also concerned about the humanitarian air service that it manages in Sudan. On average it flies 15,000 people all over Sudan and eight thousand to Darfur in a month.  Fleischer says the flights are at risk for lack of funding.

"This is right now very much at risk because we have not so far received funding this year for the humanitarian air service and if we do not receive the funding we will have to stop operations by the end of the month which would be dramatic," she said.

Dramatic, she says, because soon as the rainy season starts many roads in Darfur will not be accessible and people will not be able to reach their destinations to deliver humanitarian services.

WFP says Darfur accounts for 77 percent of all of its resources, that's about $500 million this year and almost 500,000 tons of food for the people living in the war-ravaged region.

1 insufficient   

adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的

参考例句：

• There was insufficient evidence to convict him.没有足够证据给他定罪。
• In their day scientific knowledge was insufficient to settle the matter.在他们的时代，科学知识还不能足以解决这些问题。

2 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

3 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

4 patchwork   

n.混杂物；拼缝物

参考例句：

• That proposal is nothing else other than a patchwork.那个建议只是一个大杂烩而已。
• She patched new cloth to the old coat,so It'seemed mere patchwork. 她把新布初到那件旧上衣上，所以那件衣服看上去就象拼凑起来的东西。

5 hampering   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• So fraud on cows and development aid is seriously hampering growth. 因此在牛问题上和发展补助上的诈骗严重阻碍了发展。
• Short-termism, carbon-trading, disputing the science-are hampering the implementation of direct economically-led objectives. 短效主义，出售二氧化碳，进行科学辩论，这些都不利于实现以经济为主导的直接目标。

6 rations   

定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量

参考例句：

• They are provisioned with seven days' rations. 他们得到了7天的给养。
• The soldiers complained that they were getting short rations. 士兵们抱怨他们得到的配给不够数。

7 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

8 volatile   

adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质

参考例句：

• With the markets being so volatile,investments are at great risk.由于市场那么变化不定，投资冒着很大的风险。
• His character was weak and volatile.他这个人意志薄弱，喜怒无常。

9 deploying   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的现在分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Provides support for developing and deploying distributed, component-based applications. 为开发和部署基于组件的分布式应用程序提供支持。
• Advertisement, publishing, repair, and install-on-demand are all available when deploying your application. 在部署应用程序时提供公布、发布、修复和即需即装功能。