The WFP announced that seven planes carrying supplies of maize and fish reached Kuito on Monday - the first food supplies to reach the town for more than a week.

The programme's spokeswoman said that conditions in Kuito meant that the resumption of flights could not be delayed any longer.

Missile attack

The WFP suspended its cargo flights in Angola 10 days ago following the second missile attack on one of its aircraft in the space of a week.

Flights to most of the country were subsequently resumed. But in Kuito, where the need for the food was most urgent, the WFP decided to delay the resumption of flights owing to the poor condition of the airport runway there.

More than 1,000 children are receiving emergency feeding

Announcing the decision to start flying to Kuito once more, a WFP spokeswoman said the organisation was still not happy with the state of the runway, which is not yet ready to land all of the food that it needed in Kuito. But she added that the government was working on repairing the airport.

More than 160,000 people in and around Kuito depend on emergency food aid.

Guerrilla threat

Most of them have been forced off their land by the civil war, which has recently intensified in the area.

The threat of guerrilla attacks by Unita rebels also makes it impossible to deliver food by road.

The condition of the runway, as well as fuel shortages, has hindered the airlift in recent months, with the result that food stocks in the town were already extremely low before the flights were suspended.

Children are the most acutely affected by the food shortages, with increasing numbers suffering from malnutrition.

Nearly 1,000 children in Kuito are receiving emergency treatment at therapeutic feeding centres in the town.