World Food Program halts its aid to Cambodia

The UN's World Food Program has suspended emergency food aid shipments to Cambodia, because the supplies already delivered there have not been distributed , Executive Director Garson Vogel said Wednesday. The Rome-based program has delivered about 30,000 tons of food -- mainly rice -- to the Cambodian port of Kompong Som and also sent food up the Mekong River to the inland capital of Phnom Penh. "But only a few hundred tons have been distributed," Mr. Vogel told Reuters.He added that he hoped shipments could be resumed in February.

The program's emergency aid to an estimated 600,000 Cambodian refugees in the Thai border area is continuing normally through Thailand, the executive director reported.