UN Provides Immedaite Assistance to Displaced Georgians

In response to fighting between Georgian and South Ossetian forces, the United Nation's World Food Program provided timely humanitarian aid to 2,000 displaced persons in Georgia's capital Tbilisi. Today the WFP will extend its food rations to those outside of Tbilisi, particularly targeting the conflict's most vulnerable victims: rural residents, school children, tuberculosis patients and people suffering from HIV/AIDS. But the WFP is not the only UN agency working to provide humanitarian assistance to the displaced: UNHCR has established two humanitarian corridors out of South Ossetia. In upcoming days it plans to provide basic, non-food based assistance to civilians and to offer temporary shelter and refuge where needed. Their teamed efforts, coupled with aid from other humanitarian groups, is essential in providing relief, refuge and assistance to the tens of thousands who had fled South Ossetia over the last four days. Additionally, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has announced the need for an immediate ceasefire between the warring sides.