NAIROBI, Jan 3, 2006 (Xinhuanet) -- The World Food Program (WFP) is now using new sea routes to deliver relief food to more than 2 million Somalis faced with famine, WFP Deputy Country Director Leo van der Velden has said.

"WFP will use Djibouti port as a transshipment hub to reach the northern Somalia ports of Berbera and Bossaso by sea or alternatively overland from Djibouti to Hargeysa and further to northeast Somalia," Velden was quoted by local newspaper Daily Nation as saying on Tuesday.

The UN agency had been forced to use new routes due to increased piracy along the Somali coast, which has resulted in Kenyan shipping agents boycotting the war-torn country, according to the newspaper.

Velden said in a statement that WFP was also using overland means, but only through Mandera in northeastern Kenya to deliver supplies to Bay and Bakol regions in Somalia.

"Through this corridor we also intend to reach out to Gedo region," he said. "Furthermore, the possibility of delivering overland via Liboi, on the Kenyan-Somalia border, to reach the Juba region is being explored.

The port of Merka in south Somalia was also being used for small-scale shipments through contractors, he added.

"Navy protection has been requested by the main shipping agents to restart the use of Merka on a larger scale," he said.

He said poor rainfall in southern Somalia had exposed 820,000 of the 2 million people to the risk of major hunger.

"WFP looks after 620,000 people, while 200,000 more are receiving relief food from Care International," he added.

WFP operations in Somalia were sabotaged in 2005 by the hijacking of two WFP-chartered ships carrying aid food off Somali coast. Ship owners are very reluctant to sail to Somali ports and are demanding armed escorts before they do so.

To take action against the pirates, the Somali transitional government in November 2005 signed a two-year contract worth more than 50 million U.S. dollars with New York-based Topcat Marine Security to safeguard its coast.

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