21 Mar 2011

Some Vanuatu cyclone victims say they're still to receive food supplies

2:42 pm on 21 March 2011

There are reports more than two thousand people on the east of Tanna island in the southern province of Vanuatu are still waiting for food supplies two months after being hit by a damaging cyclone.

Local chiefs say food gardens were badly affected by Cyclones Vania and Atu but they haven't received food from the government, despite supplies being sent to the wider region.

They say their areas were the most affected by the cyclones, last year's El Nino and the increase in activity of the Yasur volcano, and they deserve to get aid ahead of other areas in Tafea Province.

Our correspondent in Port Vila says the National Disaster Management Office admits it didn't have enough rice when it began distributing supplies around Tafea last month.

The office says it'd been given the wrong information after a survey of the damage caused by the cyclones.