United Nations Radio

The World Food Programme (WFP) will be forced to cut food rations for up to three million people in Darfur because of continued attacks on its trucks.

Starting next month, the agency will reduce monthly food rations--which include cereals, beans, vegetable oil and sugar--by half.

WFP spokesperson Emilia Casella says this decision, which she called "the absolute last resort", comes just ahead of the rainy season.

"And as the rainy season approaches, what happens is there is less and less food. What that means is we begin also to progressively see more people in the countryside during this period. We would get as high as 3.7 million people receiving WFP food in Darfur."

Since the start of the year, 60 WFP-contracted trucks have been hijacked in Darfur. Nearly 40 trucks are still missing and 26 drivers unaccounted for. One driver was killed in Darfur last month.

For UN Radio, I'm Dianne Penn.

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