World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

South Sudan will split with the rest of Sudan on Saturday to become the newest nation in the world (..). The recent fighting in Abyei has displaced an estimated 100,000 people, who rely on the World Food Programme for assistance. WFP also had been distributing food to an estimated 900,000 people in the south. Emilia Casella, a spokesperson for WFP, said the food agency welcomes South Sudan's independence.

North Sudan said on Tuesday it wanted U.N. peacekeepers to leave when the south secedes on July 9, shrugging off international pressure to extend the mission to protect civilians caught up in fresh fighting. (..) North Sudan's Darfur region, the scene of an eight-year insurgency, is monitored by a separate joint U.N./African Union (UNAMID) peacekeeping force that does not have the same deadline. Individual U.N. missions, including UNICEF and the World Food Program would also not be affected.

Four days before South Sudan becomes independent from the rest of Sudan, the United Nations is preparing for the next phase of its role in the region, both on the ground and at Headquarters in New York with the potential addition of a new Member State. (..) Emilia Casella, a spokesperson for WFP, said the agency welcomed South Sudan’s independence, “as peace is important to maintaining food security.”

Nyanath Kier’s protective arms cradle her crying baby, who entered the world just days before the south of Africa’s largest country is itself born as a new nation. (..) The UN World Food Programme said it helped to feed about half the population last year, or some four million people.

During more than two decades of war, the people of southern Sudan relied heavily on food aid brought in by foreign aid agencies. (..) Michelle Iseminger is with the World Food Program. “They are trying to support the WFP in doing an established food strategic grain reserve. So in times of crisis or high food prices, the government then could release food out into the market and/or as free distribution," she said.

The Security Council today established, for an initial six months, a United Nations peacekeeping force for the area around the Sudanese town of Abyei, which is contested by both north and south and has been the scene of renewed fighting in recent weeks. (..) The World Food Programme (WFP) and its local partners have distributed food to 42,000 vulnerable people in the area and are prioritizing distributions to locations that are expected to be inaccessible when the rainy season starts.

Families recall fleeing for their lives when the remote town of Jau, on the border of north and south Sudan, was targeted by army bombings that destroyed the market and scattered the terrified population. (..) The price of sorghum, a local staple, has doubled in the state capital Bentiu, according to the World Food Programme, and fuel prices have shot up too, ironically in an area criss-crossed by pipelines from the state's oil fields.

Sudan's South Kordofan State Governor Ahmed Haroun said Saturday that life in the region has been restored to its normal course after clashes it has witnessed since June 6. (..) "The humanitarian conditions are stable thanks to the efforts of the Humanitarian Aid Commission and the UN agencies, top of them the World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF besides the Sudanese Red Crescent," said Haroun.