World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Two rival ethnic groups involved in deadly clashes this week in Sudan's disputed oil-rich Abyei region have signed a deal to end the violence. The hostilities had threatened to overshadow the referendum on independence for the south.

Feeling hungry? Maybe that’s because of all the news, from around the world, about food today — how much people produce, how much more they need, how much it’s going to cost, how much of an effect it will have on climate change, and vice versa. (..) There’s actually encouraging news on the food front from south Sudan, where citizens are voting now to become an independent nation. While much of Africa is under intense pressure to provide food for its people, the U.N. World Food Programme says south Sudan could become a food exporter and end its chronic food dependency within a decade. But immediately after the vote, this area is likely to need more food aid, according to the U.N.

The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization and World Food Program warn recent gains in food security in Sudan could be reversed by increasing food prices and an escalation of localized conflict. The agencies say states bordering on northern Sudan, such as Upper Nile and Unity, are most vulnerable. (..) On a telephone line from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, WFP Regional Director for Sudan Amer Daoudi, says the overall food security situation improved last year largely because of the favorable rains.

Gripping a permit card, Julia Lako, 30, walked for two hours on Thursday to join a hundred-meter queue eager to receive food that could support her family for three months, once for all. (..) After showing the government-issued permit card to staff with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), Lako got 121 kg of cereal, eight kg of vegetable oil, 2.7 kg of salt and 13.5 kg of pulse for herself, three-year-old son and one-year-old daughter.

As voting in southern Sudan’s independence referendum enters its final days, relief officials say at least 1 million people will continue to need food assistance despite an improvement in food security over the past year. (..) WFP Spokesman Peter Smerdon said if the referendum and its aftermath go smoothly, the number of people in need is expected to peak at 1.4 million in the middle of this year. "The worst-case scenario is that the number will increase gradually from now until April or May or June, and we’ll see the number go as high as 2.7 million," said Smerdon. "But that is still lower than the 3 million people who needed assistance in 2010."

The return of hundreds of thousands of south Sudanese in anticipation of independence for their homeland could reverse recent progress on food security in the region, UN agencies warned Wednesday. Rising food prices and a potential escalation of conflict in border areas could also threaten food supplies, the Rome-based World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a report.

The number of people in South Sudan needing food aid is set to rise after an independence vote, depending on the security of food supplies and inflow of people returning to the South, the United Nations said. (..) In the best-case scenario of a peaceful referendum process, the number of people receiving emergency food aid would rise to 1.4 million during the lean season from March until August 2011, the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) said in a report on Wednesday.

With investment and security south Sudan could become a food exporter and end its chronic food dependency within a decade, the U.N. World Food Program said Wednesday. WFP Sudan Regional Director Amer Daoudi said the U.N. agency was working with south Sudan, which is voting to become an independent nation in 2011, to build strategic grain reserves and a road network to link rural farmers to urban markets.

Southern Sudan may have a cereal deficit of as much as 340,000 metric tons this year as about 120,000 people have returned to the region, which is holding an independence referendum this week. (..) “There are 120,000 people confirmed to be returning to the South who have lived in the North for many years,” WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon said today in a telephone interview from Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan. “We have put contingency plans in place for up to 500,000 people.”

Tens of thousands of southern Sudanese are making the pilgrimage home in order to vote in the upcoming independence referendum. (..) "This food is going to returnees - people originally from the south coming home from Khartoum for the referendum," said Peter Smerdon from the World Food Program. "They have said their final destination, where they came from in the south, was Juba so we are giving them a two-month ration of food so they can reintegrate into their local community."