World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

In early September, WFP nutrition focal points and their government counterparts from 18 countries across West Africa gathered in Dakar for a four-day workshop. 
 

The food security and nutrition situation in Côte d’Ivoire remains precarious following the post-electoral crisis. WFP is providing community canteens and supplementary feeding for vulnerable populations.

Toulépleu is a small town some 20 km from the Liberian border and saw some of the worst fighting during the recent political crisis in Côte d’Ivoire. WFP plans to assist all of the population in the region.

Recent fighting in Abidjan has left many Ivoirians without homes or means of survival. WFP is providing necessary food assistance to displaced Ivoirians, many of whom remain too frightened to return home.

As Cote d'Ivore slowly recovers from its recent political and humanitarian crisis, WFP continues to provide assistance to Ivoirians who were forced to flee their homes. WFP's life-saving food rations have been vital for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs).

Four months after civil war broke out in the Ivory Coast, many displaced families remain far from home, either unable to return to their villages or too worried to do so. Some of them - including many traumatised women and children - are living in encampments outside Abidjan, where they are being supported by WFP food assistance.

WFP is ramping up efforts to assist people displaced by violence in Cote d’Ivoire with a series of airlifts that will help feed over 75,000 people around the country. Meanwhile, a logistically challenging operation is underway to feed some 150,000 refugees in remote areas of neighboring Liberia.

Graan Jaff is the chief of WFP operations in the western Côte d’Ivoire town. For the past few months, he’s been at the middle of the country’s upheaval, working to get food to the people who need it. Jaff, who's based in the western town of Man, says that tens of thousands of people on the run are hungry and scared, and that reaching them with help is no easy job.

When fighting broke out in Cote d’Ivoire last December, Zeh Apoline—an elderly fruit vendor who lost her husband and three children during Cote d’Ivoire’s 2002 Civil War—wasted no time in fleeing across the border into Liberia. She’s now recovering from the trip, which left her sick and exhausted, with the help of regular, nutritious meals.

Tia Paul’s family of 12 depend on the cocoa and coffee farm that he left behind in November when fighting broke out across Cote d’Ivoire. Though lucky enough to have relatives in Liberia to stay with, he says he’s worried what could happen to his farm while he’s away.