Russia to receive food aid for Chechnya

Russia is to receive $26 million in international food aid to combat hunger in its conflict-torn republic of Chechnya up to 2005, even as it completes its own $11 million donation of wheat and maize to malnourished children in Angola and North Korea.

James Morris, head of the World Food Programme, said he had just agreed a new 18-month programme to deliver food to Chechen residents, schoolchildren and those displaced by the conflict into neighbouring Ingushetia.

The sums include nearly $16 million for supplies of basic goods including wheat flour, vegetable oil, sugar and salt to 259,000 Chechens, with the remaining $10 million covering transport and administration costs and other overheads.

The donors are led by the US, the European Union, Switzerland and the UK.