World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

NOUAKCHOTT – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has received a donation of 3 270 metric tons of rice and 60 metric tons of vegetable oil, worth almost US$5 million, from the United State’s Office of Food for Peace to feed Malians seeking refuge in Mauritania.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today received a Saudi donation of 202 metric tons of dates worth more than US$ 285, 000 to feed hungry families in Mauritania.

WFP is expanding operations in West Africa to feed an additional 1.4 million people hard hit by high food prices in Guinea, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burkina Faso and Senegal.

The United Nations World Food Programme has thanked UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, for a US$1 million donation for its school feeding programme in Mauritania.

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 has warned that floods in Mauritania are putting greater pressure on its dwindling food supplies for 470,000 people who are among the most food insecure in West Africa.

WFP teams in many countries across Africa are delivering food to people hit by floods across the continent that are the worst in decades in some places. But WFP urgently needs new contributions to cope with the crisis.

As the hijacking of a WFP-chartered vessel off the coast of Somalia entered its tenth day, WFP urged for a swift end to the impasse, citing concerns for the welfare of the crew, as well as increasing difficulties in contracting additional ships to deliver urgent food aid to hungry people.

WFP has warned that unless it received substantial new contributions for its operation in Mauritania, as many as 68,000 young children menaced by malnutrition will see their rations reduced or cut completely at the most critical time of the year.