2005 was the most challenging year the humanitarian aid world had faced since World War II. The relentless onslaught of the Indian Ocean tsunami, drought and locusts in Niger, continuing conflict in Darfur, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Stan, and the devastating earthquake in Kashmir, took hundreds of thousands of lives and destroyed many more homes and livelihoods. In the year that followed the Indian Ocean tsunami, WFP delivered assistance to 2.2 million of the survivors in one of its most complex aid operations ever, stretching from Indonesia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand to the shores of Somalia. WFP and its partners in the public, private and corporate sectors worked around the clock to prevent a second wave of deaths from disease and starvation.
