UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- U.N. agencies have been trying to get food shipments out of the Kenyan port of Mombasa and set up safe havens for women and children, officials said Friday.
The United Nations estimated that 250,000 Kenyans have been displaced by violence since last week's disputed election.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has discussed the violence with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his rival, Raila Odinga, urging them to settle their differences.
The crisis in Kenya has frozen food shipments to Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While food can be shipped from Mombasa to Somalia by sea, it must go to the other countries by truck.
Some trucks that left Mombasa were blocked by vigilantes setting up barriers on the highways or by violence. Officials with the World Food Program said 15 of the trucks were in or near Nairobi, 60 in the Mombasa area and more in Eldoret, near a church where scores of people were killed this week.
"WFP is holding urgent talks to resolve this issue and get food to those who need it in Kenya and elsewhere," the agency said.
