Hunger in the news
A daily selection of news reports from the world's media dealing with hunger and responses to it.
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Hunger in the news
12 December 2013
16 million risk hunger in Sahel despite good harvest
Around 16 million people are at risk of going hungry across Africa's Sahel belt next year due to conflicts and rapid population growth, even though the region expects good harvests and rainfall, a senior U.N. official said on Tuesday. Violence in northern Nigeria, northern Mali and the Central African Republic combined with high fertility rates have fueled food shortages and high food prices across the savannah region. In Niger alone, the fertility rate is 7.6 children per mother.Reuters/ Alertnet
Hunger in the news
12 December 2013
UN agencies race to offer aid amid high tensions in CAR capital
UN agencies are racing to offer assistance to civilians and refugees of the Central African Republic (CAR) as incessant looting and riots have stirred fears that the battered country is inching toward the verge of collapse, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.(..) The World Food Programme (WFP) also joined the relief action, saying it is providing food assistance to people displaced in Bangui and Bossangoa, to the north of Bangui.Xinhua News
Hunger in the news
12 December 2013
U.N. plans first aid airlift to Syria from Iraq as winter grips
The United Nations' first relief airlift to Syria from Iraq will deliver food and winter supplies to the mostly Kurdish northeast over the next 10 days with the permission of both governments, U.N. aid agencies said on Tuesday. Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP), later said that it also planned 10 rotations over the next 10 days in an operation aimed at feeding more than 30,000 people for a month. Its first flight would carry 40 metric tonnes of food, including wheat flour, pasta, oil, sugar, salt, rice, canned beans and bulgur wheat, she said.Reuters
Hunger in the news
10 December 2013
The Syrian children of the Kilis refugee camp: ‘We tell them not to worry, it’s far away, but they get scared’
Syrian state television says the country's local and international telephone lines as well as the internet are down because of technical problems. Meanwhile the global chemical weapons watchdog OPCW has said that the removal of chemical weapons from Syria may be delayed slightly due to the difficulties of operating during a civil war.The Independent
Hunger in the news
10 December 2013
World Food Program extends aid to Capiceños
About 16,900 Capiceño families will receive packs of 15 kilograms of rice donated by the World Food Program (WFP) in view of supertyphoon Yolanda’s devastation in the province. WFP is among the various international organizations and United Nations agencies who helped Capiceños and other typhoon victims in the Visayas region in the emergency and response as well as in the ongoing early recovery and reconstruction stage.Philippine Information Agency
Hunger in the news
6 December 2013
FAO warns of new risk of food insecurity in Sahel
World cereal production will reach a new high of almost 2,500 million tonnes, including rice in milled terms, according to new FAO estimates. The figure is almost 8.4 percent more than last year and some 6 percent above the previous record in 2011, according to the latest issue of the Crop Prospects and Food Situation Report. While global cereal production is expected to increase, FAO warned that food security conditions in several parts of Africa and elsewhere are deteriorating.Reuters/ Alertnet
Hunger in the news
6 December 2013
UN: Poverty Reduction Slowing in Latin America
The United Nations says a weaker economic performance and rising food costs are slowing poverty reduction in Latin America and the Caribbean. The annual report from the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, or ECLAC, says 164 million people, or 28 percent of the region's population, are still considered poor, with 68 million living in extreme poverty. That is nearly unchanged from last year.VOA News
Hunger in the news
6 December 2013
UN resolution targets strife in Central African Republic
The UN Security Council resolution, which was approved on Thursday (05.12.2013), is aimed at restoring security and protecting civilians in the Central African Republic. Most aid organizations have pulled out of the region, because they fear for the safety of their staff. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced by the violence and many have been living in the bush for weeks. The World Food Program warned recently that more than a million people in CAR are not getting enough to eat. That is a quarter of the country's population.Deutsche Welle
Hunger in the news
6 December 2013
Britain, WFP bail out million of Malawians from hunger
The United Kingdom has contributed US$22 million (K8.4 billion) to the United Nations World Food Programme to assist Malawian families who are unable to meet their basic food needs. The contribution will enable WFP to provide food assistance to some 910 000 people for several months of the ‘lean season’ between now and March when the next harvest is due according to a press statement from UKaid and WFP dated December 6 2013. “This contribution from the UK will enable us to provide both food and cash transfers,” says WFP Country Director Coco Ushiyama.Nyasa Times
Aid professionals
5 December 2013
World Food Prices Little Changed in November, Oils Jump, UN Says
World food prices were little changed in November as falling prices for grain and sugar partially compensated for a jump in the cost of cooking oils, the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization said.
Bloomberg News
