World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Northern Sudanese oil workers forced out of the south's embattled Unity state have begun to return despite continued militia threats, but crude production is still down, southern officials said on Wednesday. (..) Elsewhere in the south, the UN's World Food Programme has suspended aid operations in two key areas because of worsening security, which saw one its staff members killed last week.

More than 240,000 Southern Sudanese may not receive critical food rations next month after the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) suspended operations in two areas of the soon-to-be independent country because of direct attacks amid rising violence in the region.

The top United Nations humanitarian official today condemned attacks on aid workers in Southern Sudan, including the killing of a UN staff member over the weekend, and urged the authorities there to ensure the safety of humanitarian personnel.(..)Santino Pigga Alex Wani, a Senior Programme Assistant working with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) was killed during an attack by armed assailants in Jonglei state on Saturday, according to Ms. Amos, who expressed her deepest condolences to his family.

World Food Program (WFP) has donated 1,300 bags of food to over 200 families affected by conflict in Pigi County, the former base of renegade southern army general George Athor and his forces.(..)Manyang acknowledge that his request for food and medical assistance to Canal and Khorfulus of Pigi County from World Food Program (WFP) and UNMIS has been accepted, adding WFP is ready to deliver food.

The organisation supplies food items to benefit about 10,000 IDPs who have fled to safety around the town. The items, donated by the World Food Programme include sorghum, wheat grain, maize, lentils, fortified vegetable oil and salt, and are stashed in massive warehouses, tightly locked.

Tens of thousands of people continue to flee their homes in Sudan's western region of Darfur for the safety of internally displaced people's camps after recent fighting between government forces and armed militias. (..) ccording to OCHA, some of the new IDPs have UN World Food Programme ration cards suggesting this may not be their first displacement. The agency warned that a shortage of adequate sanitation facilities was raising the risk of disease outbreaks.

Fighting between government and rebel groups in North and South Darfur in western Sudan has displaced tens of thousands of people and hindered access by humanitarian workers to some affected areas, sources said. (..) “The deteriorating security situation in South Darfur resulted in continued displacement of civilians and impediments to humanitarian activities and movement,” the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said.

Residents across Southern Sudan are in a jubilant mood after what appears to be a landslide vote to secede from the north and to create the world's newest country. There's one side effect of this month's weeklong referendum, though, that people are not cheering: higher prices. (..) The World Food Program expects prices to continue to rise, a situation that could lead to the need for more food aid.

As vote tabulation nears an end in southern Sudan, preliminary results indicate voters are likely to choose overwhelmingly to separate from the rest of Sudan in order to form an independent state. (..) During a food distribution on a hot day in a Juba suburb, WFP Spokesman Peter Smerdon said returnees receive food supplements as they travel. "If they are stranded somewhere on the route, they can receive a 15-day ration from WFP," said Smerdon. "When they are traveling if they are on, say, the barges coming down [the] White Nile, they will receive high-energy biscuits because they can not cook food on board those barges because of the danger of fire."

Growing signs of drought in the Horn of Africa could lead to food shortages in Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia, while rising food prices may put its budget under pressure, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday. "Certain regions that are prone to drought and weather variation are showing signs of cyclical food shortages," Sheila Sisulu, deputy executive director with the U.N. agency, told Reuters. "The Horn of Africa immediately comes to mind.