The World Food Programme (WFP) has started distributing food in eastern Libya for the first time since last June to provide one-month assistance over the coming four weeks to nearly 80,000 displaced people in and around Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, a UN spokesman told reporters here Friday.

"The agency will supply each family with rations of pasta, couscous, rice and other food items," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said here at a daily news briefing.

In 2016, through its partner, WFP plans to reach at least 70,000 people each month in Libya, including displaced people, host communities, refugees and asylum seekers, Dujarric said.

"It plans to gradually increase its capacity in the country, as it receives more funding, to eventually reach as many as 210,000 people by the end of the year," he added.

WFP had dispatched the food over the past two weeks across the Egyptian border to the warehouse of its distribution partner LibAid.

The Libyan relief organisation is carrying out the food distributions to families who have left their homes in eastern Libya, particularly Benghazi, which has been hard hit by conflict for more than a year.

WFP relies entirely on voluntary contributions to finance its humanitarian and development projects. In 2016, WFP needs to raise 29 million U.S. dollars to be able to continue to help the most vulnerable in the North Africa country.

In 2015, WFP reached more than 290,000 people across Libya with food assistance, but had to suspend distributions from September to November due to lack of funding. Enditem

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