World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

BRAZZAVILLE – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today started to airlift urgent food assistance from Pointe Noire to Impfondo in Likouala province to reach tens of thousands of Congolese refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who have moved into northern Republic of Congo (RoC).

KINSHASA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is scaling up deliveries to northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo and to the neighbouring Republic of Congo to feed tens of thousands of Congolese people displaced by a recent upsurge of violence in and around Dongo village in DRC’s Equateur province.

Kampala, 8 December 2008 - WFP today launched an air operation to deliver urgently required humanitarian supplies into the northeastern corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where thousands of people have been terrorised by one of Africa’s most notorious rebel groups.

WFP warned today that greater numbers of people fleeing fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo were stretching the agency’s resources to the limit as thousands gather in camps in search of safety.

WFP today began food distributions to more than 135,000 displaced people in six camps around Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

FAO has called for a renewed commitment to guarantee the right to food for the world's hundreds of millions of hungry people.

Read UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon message to mark World Food Day, which this year promotes the Right to Food.

WFP is profiting from improved security conditions in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo to deliver vital food supplies to people forced from their homes by recent fighting and who until now have been beyond WFP’s reach. Concerns remain for those who are still cut off from humanitarian assistance.

WFP has warned that though many of the tens of thousands of people displaced by fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in recent days have now received emergency rations, there are serious concerns for those who remain beyond its reach do to insecurity.

The latest donation to assist the war-ravaged people of the Democratic Republic of Congo comes from the Government of Greece, which last year increased its contributions to a record € 3.3 million (US$4.2 million) to WFP to fight global hunger.