Kenya upheaval could cut African aid lifeline

By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Africans could lose their aid lifeline if fresh violence in Kenya were to disrupt the flow of emergency United Nations supplies, officials said on Tuesday.

U.N. agencies including the World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF have long used Kenya as an operational hub, given the normally-stable country's proximity to more volatile nations.

Other aid groups including the International Committee of the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) also use Kenya as a logistics base.

But the turmoil following Kenya's disputed December 27 election threw that network into disarray, grounding flights of humanitarian supplies from Nairobi to Somalia and stranding food aid trucks to Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo for days.

While air deliveries from Kenya resumed on Sunday, and sea shipments to Somalia are continuing, truck drivers are insisting on police escorts in some areas of the country, resulting in delays, WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said.

"The situation is still very, very volatile," she said, stressing that any prolonged or intensified upheaval in Kenya could have a stark effect across central and eastern Africa.

"Kenya is a lifeline for our operations. It is crucial that this lifeline is kept open, not only for Kenya but for the surrounding countries where there are thousands of displaced people and refugees depending on our food to survive."

HUMANITARIAN EFFORT