World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

September 5 - IN THE worst hunger crisis the world has seen this century, in the Horn of Africa, 29,000 children may already have perished. More are certain to. But apart from hand-wringing, what have been the reactions to the famine? (..) As one World Food Programme official notes, "aid cannot make it rain."

(..) Somalia has been hit hardest, its problems compounded by more than 20 years of civil war and Islamist insurgents that banned many aid agencies, including the U.N.'s World Food Program, from their territory.

Famine-hit areas of southern Somalia will likely spread in coming days, with the situation continuing to worsen despite massive international aid efforts, the United Nations has warned. (..) Aid deliveries into the worst affected areas remains severely limited. The UN World Food Programme "only has partial access to the central areas and virtually none in the south," OCHA added.

China sent its first shipment of urgently needed humanitarian aid to drought and famine victims in the Horn of Africa on Friday, the Ministry of Commerce said. (..) China announced earlier that it will offer nearly 70 million U.S. dollars in emergency grain aid to the drought-stricken African countries, including a donation of 16 million U.S. dollars in cash to the World Food Program to support its famine-relief operations in Somalia.

The U.N. refugee agency is “extremely concerned” about the increasingly poor health of Somalis who have arrived recently in Ethiopia after fleeing famine in their home country, it said on Friday. The United Nations has declared famine in five zones in southern Somalia where the al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab militants will not allow the U.N.'s World Food Programme to deliver food aid.

The donation of more than 1,000 metric tons of wheat flour is enough to support 100,000 people for a month, and will be used in WFP's emergency response to the drought in Kenya.

A ship loaded with nearly 400 tons of food for drought and famine victims in the Horn of Africa is set to depart from France on Thursday. The U.N. World Food Program says the French ship is carrying enough flour, sugar, rice and oil to feed more than 22,000 people for one month.

Food will be increasingly scarce in famine-struck southern Somalia until next year's harvest, the head of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said Thursday. (..) The United Nations has declared famine in five zones in southern Somalia where the al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab militants will not allow the U.N.'s World Food Program to deliver food aid.

What can we do, collectively and individually, in response to the famine in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa, which has been called “the most severe food security emergency in the world today”? (..) Andrew Meldrum of GlobalPost provides a handy list of organisations to which we can all donate to help get resources flowing: “The United Nations’ World Food Programme and the High Commission for Refugees are doing extensive work on the ground. International charities are also providing food, medicine and other care.

UN refugee agency chief Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that relief groups should increase aid to war-battered and drought-hit Somalis to reduce the exodus to neighbouring countries. (..) UN refugee agency workers were distributing tents, utensils and beddings, while the UN children agency and the World Food Programme provided food.