World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The United Nations refugee agency is ramping up efforts to aid some 15,500 Congolese at an increasingly crowded transit facility in western Uganda which has become a hub for those who fled renewed fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and hid in schools across the border. (..) Two communal kitchens serve three hot meals a day with food provided by the UN World Food Programme (WFP). A third kitchen is under construction.

This year, on the assumption that the crises are likely to continue, donors have agreed to fund longer-term and more flexible humanitarian projects in DRC. (..) The UN World Food Programme’s coordinator in eastern DRC, Wolfram Herfurth, says resilience basically means self-reliance, and he suggests a practical way to ensure vulnerable communities are self-reliant. “We have to provide simple, palatable livelihood options for people in camps. Since we know that about 85 percent of these displaced people are farmers, it’s logical - we’re looking at the closest solution - to provide farmers with tools and seeds so they can produce their own food,” he said.

Hundreds of troops from opposing sides have been moving into new positions around Goma, a strategic, contested city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, aid organizations said Sunday, raising worries of yet another explosion of violence.

The World Food Programme provided emergency food rations to about 81,000 displaced people in and near the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, after fighting in the region prompted residents to flee. (..) A “precarious security situation” may make it difficult to reach people needing aid beyond Goma, according to the WFP.

Tens of thousands of displaced villagers who fled the fighting are on the march with their belongings, and someone has to take care of them. (..) In these sorts of crises, agencies work together. The Red Cross is already here with water; the World Food Programme is planning high-calorie meals; Catholic Relief Services is looking at shelters.

The relative calm of the early morning was shattered Tuesday in Goma, the chief city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, when heavy fighting resumed between rebel groups and the Congolese army. (..) Rwanda will close the border crossing if asked to by the Congolese government, but that such a move could have humanitarian consequences. Tens of thousands of Congolese, already displaced by previous rounds of fighting in the volatile region, have fled camps around the edges of Goma, according to UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders.

UN World Food Programme (WFP) officer Laura Parker said that a convoy of trucks that WFP sent to Walikale territory in North Kivu province in early September took 11 days to cover 250km. (..) “We got the alert in February that there were 86,000 newly displaced in the territory needing assistance,” said Parker. “We had already started to mobilize our trucks at that time, but due to security and weather conditions we were not able to get trucks out there till July, and the recent rains are a severe hindrance.” The agency is now considering other transportation options for Walikale.

A spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Yvon Edoumou, says that since April around 275,000 people have been forced to flee their homes by fighting between the government and rebels in North Kivu province. (..) "It’s clear that there are a number of displaced people who, because they may still be living in the bush, may not be receiving help," he said. "But all the NGOs and agencies, particularly WFP, the main food agency, have maintained operations distributing aid throughout the province to all those camps."

The World Food Program (WFP) is urgently appealing for $46 million to provide life-saving assistance to hundreds of thousands of people displaced by fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo's volatile east. (..) People feel terrorized, said World Food Program spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs, not knowing whether their village will be the next to be attacked and pillaged by armed groups, who typically arrive at night.

Herekeza, who walked across the Gisenyi border crossing on Wednesday afternoon, hoped to receive treatment from Red Cross medics at Nkamira transit refugee camp. She and many others have been caught in the crossfire of clashes between the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo and soldiers loyal to a renegade General Bosco Ntaganda, wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes. (..) The UN World Food Programme is supplying food to the camp.