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NAIROBI, June 27 (AFP) - The World Food Program will deliver 2,500 tonnes of emergency food aid to some 60,000 people displaced by fighting around the north Rwanda city of Byumba in that country's civil war, the WFP announced in Nairobi, Saturday.
In a communique, the WFP said it would spend dollars 1.1 million over 90 days to supply such essentials as corn, beans, oil and salt to people from the area around Byumba, where fighting broke out in early June.
In February, the WFP began delivering emergency food aid to 40,000 people in northern Rwanda displaced by fighting between the Rwanda Patriotic Front (FPR) and Rwandan government forces.
More than 220,000 people have been forced to flee their homes and farms, the communique said, since Rwanda's civil war began in October 1990, with an offensive by FPR fighters based in Uganda.
The communique said they had fled "without taking any personal belongings. They cannot farm, and are totally dependent on outside aid for their survuival."
The WFP said that if fighting was halted, the refugees could return to their homes in about three months.
Talks to halt the continued fighting have been held in Brussels, Paris, and Dakar, Senegal, between officials of the Rwandan government and the FPR.
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AFP AFP SEQN-0227
