World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The United Nations World Food Programme today launched a highly complex operation to airlift emergency food supplies to over 2,600 refugees from Darfur who recently crossed into the remote north-eastern corner of the Central African Republic.

WFP thanks the Government of Libya for facilitating the transport of 14,000 metric tons of cereals through its territory to Chad, where more than 200,000 Sudanese fleeing the conflict in neighbouring Darfur have taken refuge in camps in the north of the country and are desperately in need of assistance.

The United Nations World Food Programme has made dramatic progress in reducing malnutrition in Ethiopia, Sudan and Chad but the achievements risk being diminished by constantly shifting security conditions, said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran today.

The UN World Food Programme\'s innovative rebuilding projects in southern Sudan – which are helping to restore food independence for people in the region – have received a generous US$55 million pledge from the Government of southern Sudan (GoSS).

On her first visit to Africa since taking the helm of the United Nations World Food Programme earlier this month, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran arrived today in Sudan for talks with the government and to see food assistance at work in the western region of Darfur and the South.

WFP welcomes the arrival at Port Sudan of a US$2 million shipment of wheat from Russia to support the agency’s recovery and development operations in Sudan.

The Pyrenees Principality of Andorra, one of the smallest countries in Europe, emerged in 2006 as one of the fastest growing donors to WFP, more than trebling its contribution to US$109,000 from US$32,000 the previous year.

James T. Morris, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), told a US Senate hearing on food aid Thursday that conquering hunger was critical to achieving peace and prosperity in the future.

Three United Nations agencies urge donors to support an appeal for a full package of assistance to cut malnutrition rates at crisis levels among children under five in refugee camps in Kenya. They warn that a host of problems linked with persistently high malnutrition had to be tackled now to save lives.

Over the last two years the efforts of humanitarian agencies in Darfur have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians caught up in the region’s conflict.