News releases

ROME – The governing body of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the WFP Executive Board, has approved a two-year, US$491-million operation, aimed at supporting a gradual shift from relief food assistance to promoting recovery and building resilience and livelihoods among vulnerable and food-insecure people in Yemen.

“The last few days have been agonizing for people in the Old City of Homs and the humanitarian aid workers who have risked their lives to get food, medical supplies and other essentials into the City after more than 600 days of besiegement.

QAMISHLI, Syria –The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) started airlifting on Tuesday enough food to feed close to 30,000 displaced people for a month from Iraq to Qamishli in northeast Syria amid growing problems in reaching people, especially in conflict and besieged areas.

KHARTOUM – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a US$2 million contribution from the Russian Federation that will support WFP’s food distributions in Sudan.

JUBA – As hopes rise for an end to the fighting in South Sudan following the signing of an agreement to cease hostilities, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is poised to seize any window of opportunity to deliver food assistance to areas that have been difficult to reach.

JUBA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched a new emergency operation to expand assistance to people affected by the crisis in South Sudan and is working to overcome challenges preventing urgently needed relief from reaching those who need it.

For the first time since the beginning of its operations in Chad 50 years ago, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has received a contribution of 182 metrics tons of food from the Chadian government for its school meals programme. The donation is worth US$400,000 dollars (almost FCFA 200 million).

DAMASCUS – Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), ended a visit to Syria on Thursday after high-level talks with government officials and meeting displaced families in a food distribution centre in the capital Damascus.

JUBA – The World Food Programme (WFP) is distributing food to South Sudanese civilians who have fled recent violence. Food distributions began on Sunday for some 30,000 civilians sheltering in UNMISS peacekeeping compounds in Juba and Bentiu, and WFP plans in the coming days to assist more people who are displaced in other parts of the country.

SANA’A – At a signing ceremony at the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, the Government of Germany formally pledged a contribution of €25 million (US$33.77 million) to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to combat malnutrition and support girls’ education in Yemen.

Statement by Kristalina Georgieva, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Valerie Amos, UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director UN World Food Programme, Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and Anthony Lake, Executive Director UN Children's Fund.

DAMASCUS – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced today that it is expanding its emergency operation to provide food assistance to over 7 million displaced Syrians inside their country and in neighbouring countries. Recent assessments show that almost half the population inside Syria is food insecure and close to 6.3 million people need urgent, life-saving, food assistance.

QAMISHLY, Syria – The UN World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), and UNICEF have started airlifting urgently needed humanitarian aid from Erbil, Iraq, to Qamishly in northeast Syria as displaced families start to face one of the harshest winters ever as winter storm “Alexa” dumped large amounts of snow and brought cold temperatures to the region.

Kabul – The Government of the Republic of Korea announced a contribution of US$ 9 million to the World Food Programme (WFP) to support asset-creation projects to boost food security in Afghanistan. The donation was formalised in a signing ceremony in Rome attended by high-level representatives from the Government of Korea as well as senior WFP officials.

DAMASCUS – As Syrians face a harsh winter amid civil war for a third consecutive year, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has begun distributing close to 10,000 litres of fuel to internally displaced families living in ten shelters in Damascus. The fuel is used in stoves for both cooking and heating. Further distribution of fuel is planned for an additional 35 shelters in Homs, Hama and Rural Damascus in the next few days.

AMMAN – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) Ambassador Against Hunger Amal Dabbas spent a day shopping and cooking with a Syrian family in Amman to increase awareness on the importance of WFP’s food assistance in ensuring Syrian refugees have access to the food and nutrition they need.

SANA’A – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today expressed gratitude to Japan for its latest contribution of 460 million Japanese Yen (US$5.6 million), which will be used to provide wheat flour and pulses to food insecure and vulnerable internally displaced people (IDPs) in Yemen.

KHARTOUM – The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), through its Emergency Food Security Programme, today confirmed its contribution of US$9 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Sudan.

BEIRUT – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) Ambassador Against Hunger Hend Sabry has visited Syrian refugees in Beirut as part of her efforts to draw attention to the plight of more than two million Syrians who fled violence to neighbouring countries

SANA’A – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed today a US$1.8 million contribution from the Government of India that will support 121,300 of the most vulnerable people in Yemen for the next six months.

KHARTOUM – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today marks 50 years of providing crucial food assistance to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people in Sudan.

SANA’A – In the first large-scale operation of its kind in Yemen, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) began this month providing cash transfers to 57,000 households in Taiz and Ibb governorates to help people supplement their food consumption.

YEREVAN – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) began this week providing assistance to 5,000 Syrian Armenians displaced from Syria who have sought protection in Armenia. The 6-month-assistance project is funded the government of the Russian Federation.

KHARTOUM – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a contribution of GB£19 million (approximately US$30.5 million) from the United Kingdom to assist the people displaced by conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region.

DAMASCUS - The Government of the People’s Republic of China has made a generous contribution of US$2 million towards the United Nations World Food Programme’s (WFP) emergency food assistance programme that is currently supporting four million conflict- affected people inside Syria.