WFP has launched a US$42.6 million regional emergency operation that aims to provide food over a 3-month period to more than one million people in Libya, and to people crossing into Tunisia and Egypt.
The plan is to expand this operation further to cover the increased humanitarian needs in the region, including a three-month extension of ongoing activities until the end of August 2011.
In cooperation with the Egyptian Red Crescent and other humanitarian agencies, WFP distributes cooked meals and fortified date bars to people stranded on the Egyptian Libyan border at the Salloum crossing point.
WFP is leading the provision of daily hot meals in Choucha camp (breakfast, lunch and dinner) along the Libyan Tunisian border to people stranded in the transitional camp awaiting repatriation to their home countries.
WFP has deployed experts on the ground to coordinate and strengthen logistics and telecommunications for the whole humanitarian community as part of a three-month special operation to boost regional logistics and emergency telecoms at a cost of US$4.1 million.
Under the UN cluster system, WFP is mandated to coordinate logistics and also telecommunications and ICT for the whole humanitarian community in emergencies such as the Libyan one. As part of this, WFP launched Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) flights on 1 May and has transported passengers from UN agencies, diplomatic corps, and NGOs between Malta, Cairo and Benghazi.