News releases

DAKAR – With a Euro 48.5 million contribution from the European Union (EU) received through its Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO), WFP was able to respond to the severe food crisis in eight countries of West and Central Africa during the 2023 hunger gap and beyond.

ROME – To make more progress in the fight against hunger, the world needs to make at-risk communities less vulnerable to climate shocks and other emergencies, the UN World Food Programme said today.

Ouagadougou – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) strongly condemns an attack on one of its helicopters that was transporting life-saving food assistance to the most vulnerable women, men, and children in the besieged town of Djibo in the Sahel region of Burkina Faso.

DAKAR – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)’s efforts to build resilience to climate-related and human-made shocks and stressors have been shown to boost food security, while also strengthening social cohesion and improving the prospects for peace in Burkina Faso and Niger - a new study reveals.

ROME – The United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP) is preparing to support 490,000 people in Burkina Faso, The Gambia and Mali who were impacted by drought in 2022. WFP has received US$15.4 million worth of insurance payouts from African Risk Capacity (ARC) Limited that will provide a cash transfer to affected people from March to May 2023, enabling them to recover from the impacts of drought, for example by buying food or supplementing incomes to avoid having to sell productive assets.

OUAGADOUGOU – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) supported vulnerable populations affected by the crisis in Burkina Faso in 2022, thanks to a USD 11.8 million contribution from the Government of Canada, channeled through Global Affairs Canada.

Ouagadougou – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has resumed its air emergency food assistance operations in Burkina Faso on January 20, 2023. This intervention aims to meet the food and nutritional needs of women, men and children, whose access to healthy and nutritious food has been compromised for several months due to insecurity growing in the Sahel region.

OUAGADOUGOU – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) received EUR 7.2 million in funding from the European Union (EU) in 2022, which has helped WFP to supply over 750,000 people in Burkina Faso with life-saving food assistance as humanitarian needs have continued to rise due to insecurity, the impact of climate change, and rising food prices.

BEIJING - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of China have signed an agreement to provide life-saving food assistance to vulnerable populations in Burkina Faso affected by the combined threat of conflict, climate shocks, and the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19.

ROME – Further food ration cuts are imminent for refugees as humanitarian needs multiply around the world while funding struggles to keep pace, warns the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on World Refugee Day. The somber warning comes as WFP has already been forced to significantly reduce rations to refugees across its operations.

OUAGADOUGOU – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) received an additional EUR 5 million in funding from the European Union (EU) in 2022 to contribute to providing life-saving food assistance to 1.6 million people in Burkina Faso who are unable to meet their basic food needs due to conflict, the impact of climate change, and the socio-economic fallout caused by COVID-19.

ROME/COTONOU – The number of people on the brink of starvation across the Sahel has increased almost tenfold over the past three years and displacement by almost 400 percent as the region stares down a horrendous food crisis, the Executive Director of United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), David Beasley, warned today.

DAKAR - As conflicts and rising food prices continue to weaken the food security situation in the Western and Central African region, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a euros 8.4 million contribution from France aiming to respond to the emergency food and nutrition needs of vulnerable populations in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.

OUAGADOUGOU — The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a contribution of US$7 million from Japan to alleviate the suffering of vulnerable populations in a country hard-hit by the combined effects of insecurity, recurrent climate shocks, rising food prices, and the socio-economic impacts of the global pandemic (COVID-19).

DAKAR – Millions of families in West and Central Africa are growing more hungry and desperate by the day as food prices skyrocket – stoking a widening hunger emergency in a region engulfed by conflict and the socioeconomic fallout from COVID-19, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today, noting that immediate action is required to prevent a catastrophe.

OUAGADOUGOU – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a 3.5-million-euro (US$4.2 million) contribution from Italy to provide food assistance and develop early-recovery projects for tens of thousands of people affected by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Burkina Faso.

SEOUL/DAKAR – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a $US500,000 contribution from the Government of the Republic of Korea to our operations in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, which will help support the emergency response in Central Sahel, and provide school meals for thousands of young pupils.

OUAGADOUGOU – A donation of € 4.2 million from the European Union (EU) contributed to WFP’s efforts to stave off a hunger catastrophe in Burkina Faso, where 2 million people are struggling to feed themselves due to the combined effects of conflict, climate shocks and the socio-economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

ROME – The world has been put on a heightened famine alert with a new report by two United Nations agencies that contains a stark warning; four countries contain areas that could soon slip into famine if conditions there undergo “any further deterioration over the coming months”. These are Burkina Faso in West Africa’s Sahel region, northeastern Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.

DAKAR/ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is today warning that unless humanitarian access is urgently granted to organizations like the WFP, catastrophic levels of hunger could hit hard in parts of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The stark warning comes ahead of the High-Level Ministerial Conference on the Central Sahel in Copenhagen on 20 October 2020.

ROME – A basic meal is far beyond the reach of millions of people in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic joins conflict, climate change and economic troubles in pushing up levels of hunger around the world, according to a new study released today by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

OUAGADOUGOU – Urgent and sustained action is needed to address worsening food and nutrition insecurity in Burkina Faso, say the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), citing alarming new data. Some 3.3 million people are estimated to be facing acute food insecurity during the current lean season, that period which precedes the harvest in September.

BERLIN – As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread into countries already dealing with the impacts of drought, economic crises and conflict, the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has provided USD 5.9 million to ensure that the UN World Food Programme (WFP) can continue to protect 1.2 million vulnerable African farmers with climate risk insurance.

ROME/LIÈGE – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has kick-started a network of global logistics hubs that will support the entire aid community and ensure the delivery of vital medical and humanitarian supplies to developing countries at a time when commercial air transport is at a virtual standstill.

YOKOHAMA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a total of US$11.7 million in funding from the Government of Japan to provide vital food and nutrition assistance to the vulnerable populations in the Central Sahel affected by escalating armed conflict and severe impacts of climate change.