News releases

FREETOWN — The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed an important contribution of 2,850 metric tonnes of rice from the Government of Sierra Leone to support the implementation of the country’s national school feeding programme which is at the centre of the government’s “free quality education” initiative.

JOHANNESBURG – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed this week’s announcement of a US$615,000 (ZAR 8 million) contribution from the Government of South Africa that will help us provide vital emergency assistance to more than 10,000 people affected by mudslides and flooding in Sierra Leone.

FREETOWN – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is distributing food assistance to 7,500 people affected by the massive mudslides and flooding in Sierra Leone that have killed scores of people and left many more homeless and in desperate need of assistance.

FREETOWN - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab for Africa (J-PAL Africa) are partnering on a programme to promote children’s health in Moyamba district, one of the districts in Sierra Leone most affected by chronic malnutrition.

FREETOWN – The State of Food Insecurity in Sierra Leone report launched today by the Government of Sierra Leone, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shows more than half of the population – over 3.5 million people – are food insecure, without access to a sufficient amount of safe and nutritious food. Of these, about 600,000 are severely food insecure, eating significantly less food and less varied and nutritious food, and unable to cope with new shocks such as drought, floods and fluctuating food prices. The number of severely food insecure people has increased by 60 percent since 2010.

YOKOHAMA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a US$21.6 million cash contribution from the Government of Japan to provide vital food and nutrition assistance to the most vulnerable people in 11 countries, with 90 percent of the contribution going to 10 African nations.

FREETOWN - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a contribution of US$3.1 million from the Government of Sierra Leone and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria - enabling WFP to scale up nutritional support for more than 20,000 Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) and tuberculosis (TB) patients.

FREETOWN - More than 326,000 school children will receive take-home food rations this academic year as the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) expands its assistance from 1,000 to 1,415 primary schools across the country to support efforts to get and keep children in school post-Ebola.

FREETOWN – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes today a US$ 2.2 million contribution from the Government and the people of Japan that will enable WFP to support 77,000 people affected by the Ebola outbreak so that they can recover and receive the food and nutrition assistance they need.

CONAKRY - More than 240,000 children will receive school meals this academic year in Guinea, as the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) expands its school meals programme from 735 to 1,605 primary schools across the country.

FREETOWN – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes Japan’s donation of US$6 million to support WFP’s response in Eb0la-affected Sierra Leone, including support to some 3,000 Ebola survivors across the country.

GENEVA – The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are combining their forces in a new partnership in the Ebola-affected countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The arrangement combines the logistics strength of WFP with WHO’s public health expertise to help get the current Ebola outbreak down to zero cases in West Africa. The platform also establishes an alert and response infrastructure for future crises.

FREETOWN - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a US$1 million grant from the African Development Bank (ADB) to help fight Ebola in Sierra Leone. The contribution will be used to support the Government of Sierra Leone and WFP in meeting the essential food and nutrition needs of vulnerable people and communities affected by Ebola.

BEIJING – Today the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) are launching a public fundraising campaign with Tencent, one of the world’s largest internet companies, to raise funds to fight Ebola.

Lack of access to food in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone could threaten over one million people

BEIJING – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is especially thankful for the timely and generous assistance provided by the Chinese government, which has supported WFP’s food assistance as well as sending medical experts and equipment at this very difficult time, to halt the advance of Ebola Virus Disease.

BRINDISI – A flight carrying humanitarian supplies to support the Ebola response departed for Guinea this morning from the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) in Brindisi.

BERLIN/ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has received €24 million (more than US$ 30 million) from the government of Germany to support the increasing need for food assistance to more than one million people affected by the Ebola virus epidemic.

FREETOWN – At the end of a three-day visit to Sierra Leone, during which she met with government officials and key actors in the fight against Ebola, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Ertharin Cousin today called upon partners all over the world to work together to address the critical needs of those affected by the health crisis.

MONROVIA – A United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) aircraft has flown one metric ton of critical medical supplies on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO) to the Malian capital of Bamako after the first case of Ebola was identified in the country.

FREETOWN –With World Bank funding to the Government of Sierra Leone, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has airlifted 20 ambulances and 10 mortuary pickup trucks to scale up the Government logistical capacity in response to Ebola. This delivery constitutes the first set of 74 vehicles worth US$4 million to be brought in by WFP from its logistical hub in Dubai to Freetown. The remaining 44 vehicles are expected in Freetown by sea in the forthcoming weeks.

BEIJING - The Government of the People’s Republic of China has contributed US$6 million to the United Nations World Food Programme’s (WFP) emergency operation to assist 1 .3 million people impacted by the Ebola virus outbreak in the three most-affected countries – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

FREETOWN – Amid concerns over the increasing rate of Ebola infection in Sierra Leone, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and partners today began distributing food for 265,000 people on the outskirts of the capital.

DAKAR/ROME – Logistical support to the global Ebola response is in high gear – with the latest supply flight en route today from Italy to Liberia – as the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reported reaching more than 530,000 people with food assistance in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

ROME/WASHINGTON - The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) will receive $21.7 million from two international financial institutions. This contribution will help support the increasing need for food assistance amid the worsening Ebola epidemic.