The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has started food distributions in the Tsunami affected town of Hafun on the northern coast of Somalia, accordingto a press release reaching here on Thursday.

The only way to access Hafun now is through mud and water, a journey that takes the aid trucks over seven hours. Almost 500 families, surrounded by rubble and destruction, received an emergency ration of rice, maize, vegetable oil and beans, enough to get them through the next couple of days, said the release.

WFP offices in Somalia's capital Mogadishu and the southern port city of Merka, are compiling latest reports from the affectedlocalities in the south and central zones, and more information regarding damage, casualties and the estimated number of people inneed of relief assistance will be available in coming days.

Latest reports coming from WFP Somalia field offices reveal theseverity and damage inflicted by the tidal waves vary throughout the Horn of Africa nation. Preliminary estimates show that around 30,000-50,000 people are affected and in need of immediate relief assistance.

The tsunamis struck the Somali coast on Sunday as the effect ofa series of strong undersea Sumatra earthquakes hit the east African coast, claiming at least 132 lives in Somalia, 10 in Tanzania and one in Kenya.

The earthquake, measuring at 8.7 on the Richter Scale, was registered Sunday, west of the island of Sumatra, triggering tsunamis, or tidal waves, in south and southeast Asia.

At least 120,000 people in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Maldives, Thailand, Malaysia, among others, have been killed in the disaster.