World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Rome - With a generous donation from its first and largest corporate partner - the global mail, express and logistics company TPG N.V. - WFP will transport high-energy biscuits to Sudan this weekend to help feed thousands of children caught up in the conflict-ridden Darfur region.

WFP, in the first survey of internally displaced people (IDPs) and residents across western Sudan, says that almost 22 percent of children under the age of five are malnourished and almost half of all families do not have enough food.

Rome - WFP marked the occasion of World Food Day by highlighting the plight of hundreds of millions of hungry people around the world whose problems are overshadowed by high-profile emergencies such as the current crisis in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

Rome With its third assisted flight in support of the Darfur crisis, the global mail, express and logistics company TPG N.V. is financing the transport by WFP of high-energy biscuits to Chad. This generous donation by WFP\'s first and largest corporate partner will help address the malnutrition levels among thousands of people sheltering in refugee camps across the border from conflict-ridden Western Sudan.

Rome Extreme weather and other natural disasters, from the locust plague in West Africa to freezing weather in Peru, are presenting unique challenges for WFP at a moment when it is heavily involved in Darfur and elsewhere.

Port Sudan The first 25 of a total of 120 specialised all-terrain 6X6 trucks have arrived by sea in Port Sudan to help in a WFP operation to deliver food by land and air to Darfur. As the rainy season lashes across an area the size of France, the situation is becoming increasingly desperate for hundreds of thousands of people trapped in camps.

Tripoli/Rome In a landmark deal with WFP, the Libyan Government has joined the international community in helping to provide life-saving assistance to 1.2 million people displaced by conflict in western Sudan\'s Darfur region and some 175,000 who have fled to eastern Chad.

Khartoum Battling appalling and often dangerous conditions in western Sudan, WFP has delivered food for nearly one million people in the Darfur region in August, but noted this fell alarmingly short of its target of 1.2 million people.

Washington, D.C. The United States donates more than US$28 million to WFP to help feed families fleeing the violence in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The UN Secretary-General has asked WFP Executive Director James Morris to lead a high-level humanitarian mission to the Darfur region of Sudan. The inter-agency mission, scheduled to be in Sudan from 27 April until 2 May, will get a first-hand look at the humanitarian situation, assess the scope of the crisis, and identify any gaps in humanitarian assistance.