World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

WFP and its partners are celebrating World Food Day (16 October) by reaffirming their commitment to help communities overcome hunger. In Somalia, WFP is working to address immediate food needs as well as to strengthen the longer-term resilience of vulnerable people, many of whom live in rural areas.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today confirmed the deaths of two staff members and a colleague working for a cooperating partner organisation in Somalia, in an incident that illustrates the risks that humanitarian workers can face while working in one of the world’s most difficult and dangerous environments.

Renowned recording artist Sami Yusuf is to donate the proceeds of a new single to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in support of humanitarian operations in the drought-hit Horn of Africa.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today began the distribution of food assistance to hungry families in Somalia. The food was purchased using a US$16 million donation from China – the country’s largest single donation to WFP humanitarian operations.

The delivery of food assistance to millions of hungry people in Somalia presents one of the most complex and dangerous challenges that humanitarian agencies face anywhere in the world.  All the humanitarian agencies working in this environment face risks.  There are risks to the safety of their staff, risks to their property, and risks to commodities being moved into the country– whether they are food, medicines, equipment or shelter material.

CAIRO – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a generous contribution of US$50 million from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the guidance of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abduallah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud that will be used to feed more than half a million Somalia children suffering from malnutrition.

Beijing – The government of China has made its largest single donation to the work of the United Nations World Food Programme with US$16 million towards the agency’s famine relief operation in Somalia.

There is a life and death situation here in Somalia.  WFP will start airlifts within days into Mogadishu to get vital supplies of special nutritious foods for the malnourished children who so desperately need it.

Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), is today (21 July) travelling to Somalia to view WFP’s ongoing operations to feed vulnerable and hungry people affected by severe drought and conflict. Sheeran will return to Nairobi, Kenya this evening.
 

ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today said 11.3 million people are in need of food assistance due to drought in the Horn of Africa, and declared a corporate emergency, elevating the crisis to the highest level of action, and indicating grave concern about the possibility of widespread loss of life.