News releases

FREETOWN – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a contribution of US$3.2 million from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide emergency food and development assistance to 68,000 people in Sierra Leone, where four out of five households have irregular access to safe and nutritious food.

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.

GENEVA, NEW YORK, ROME, 12 January 2023 - United Nations agencies are calling for urgent action to protect the most vulnerable children in the 15 countries hardest hit by an unprecedented food and nutrition crisis.

NIAMEY – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is providing life-saving food assistance to an increasing number of vulnerable people affected by population displacements in Niger, thanks to EUR 11 million provided by the European Union’s Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO). The funding has allowed WFP to meet the needs of 584,500 food-insecure people in Niger through cash and food assistance in 2022.

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.

YAOUNDE - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a contribution of EUR 4.2 million from the European Union (EU) through the EU's Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations Department (ECHO) to strengthen WFP response to the emergency food needs of 598,000 people in the northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon. WFP is providing life-saving food assistance to more than 300,000 women, men and children affected by the conflict in both regions.

KAMPALA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a contribution of EUR 5.1 million (approximately 20 billion Uganda Shillings) from the European Union’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations department (ECHO) to provide life-saving food assistance in the form of cash transfers for more than 850,000 refugees in Uganda, and for emergency food assistance and treatment for malnutrition for an additional 183,288 people in the Karamoja region.

ADDIS ABABA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has delivered over 2,400 metric tons of food, medical, nutrition and other lifesaving supplies to Ethiopia’s Tigray region following the signing of a peace agreement earlier this month and the reopening of all four road corridors. However, deliveries of assistance within Tigray are not matching the needs and WFP and its cooperating partners urgently need access to all parts of the region to deliver food and nutrition assistance to 2.3 million vulnerable people.

KYIV – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and its local partners have started distributing food assistance to 100,000 people in and around Kherson city in areas that had not been reached since March despite multiple attempts from WFP and other humanitarian agencies to secure access.

ROME - The world needs concerted efforts to urgently address the global fertilizer market crunch in which farmers, especially smallholder farmers from the developing world, are priced out of production due to the high cost of inputs. We cannot allow global fertilizer accessibility problems to become a global food shortage. Reconnecting fertilizer markets is critical.

ISLAMABAD – WFP continues to expand its emergency operations to assist flood-hit Pakistani families four months since the flooding began in June 2022. WFP is ramping up life-saving food and nutrition assistance, alongside recovery and resilience-building support, and aims to reach 2.7 million people who are facing emergency levels food insecurity (IPC Phase 4) and urgently require humanitarian assistance. WFP is also boosting its logistics support to the Government and humanitarian partners.

BANGUI – Amidst growing humanitarian needs in the Central African Republic, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is responding to the ongoing floods in the country, rolling out assistance to 30,000 people who urgently require food assistance. Starting in July, torrential rains caused flooding in Bangui, as well as Bangassou (south-west) and Paoua (north-west) prefectures, leaving 22,450 people without homes, livelihoods, or assets. Many of those affected are sheltering with host families or in public spaces like schools or churches – but meteorological services forecast more heavy rains

NDJAMENA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is stepping up its emergency response to heavy rains and flooding in Chad, with emergency operations targeting 300,000 flood-hit women, men and children over the next three months. According to Chad’s Ministry of Health and Solidarity, 622,000 people have been affected by floods since late August 2022, with hundreds of houses destroyed and massive damage to crops and livelihoods.

KABUL/ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a EUR 500,000 contribution from the European Union (EU) to support the food needs of communities in the Afghan provinces of Paktika and Khost which were affected by an earthquake in late June. The funds will help WFP deliver emergency food assistance to more than 170,000 earthquake-affected people over six months. The EU’s contribution, made through its Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations department, comes on top of the EUR 15.5 million the EU recently provided to WFP’s Afghanistan response.

CHISINAU – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and its cooperating partners have delivered 1 million hot meals since 15 March to Ukrainian refugees living in WFP-supported Refugee Accommodation Centres (RACs) in Moldova.

ISLAMABAD – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is scaling up its emergency response to reach 1.9 million people affected by this year’s monsoon floods. Recovery and resilience support is now a top priority as families struggle to cope with the loss of homes, livestock and food, and the country grapples with colossal damage to infrastructure, agricultural land and crops.

COLOMBO – Amidst an unprecedented economic crisis that has left millions of Sri Lankans food insecure, John Aylieff, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific concluded a two-day visit to Sri Lanka where WFP is stepping up its emergency operations.

BANJUL – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today launched an emergency food assistance programme targeting 51,200 women, men and children affected by the worst flash floods the Gambia has experienced in nearly half a century. Driven by torrential rains in late July 2022, the flooding has mainly hit the suburbs in urban settlements - with women and children under 5 accounting for almost three-quarters of the total affected population.

SANA’A / ROME – A UN World Food Programme-charted vessel departed today from the Ukrainian Black Sea Port of Yuznhy (Pivdennyi) with wheat grain destined for the agency’s humanitarian response in Yemen.

ISLAMABAD – With a record 33 million people affected by this year’s heavy monsoon rains and flooding in Pakistan, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is stepping up its support to the Government’s relief efforts. The floods are the deadliest in over a decade and more heavy rains are forecast.

ROME – It is reprehensible that millions of people will be pushed further into hunger by the resumption of fighting in Northern Ethiopia. In the past few months, the humanitarian truce has allowed WFP and our partners to reach almost 5 million people in Tigray. However, yesterday that lifeline was severed.

Tripoli – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Libya has welcomed a contribution of JPY 200 million (approx.US$1.53 million) from Japan to implement its food distribution in the West and the East of the country. This project aims to provide food assistance to more than 10,000 beneficiaries, including vulnerable and food-insecure people, as well as schoolchildren.

BRIDGETOWN – Strengthening emergency preparedness and response capacities of the Caribbean islands, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), through a partnership with the Government of Barbados and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) will build a logistics hub and training centre in Barbados.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director General Qu Dongyu, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, World Bank Group (WBG) President David Malpass, World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley and World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala issued the following joint statement calling for urgent action to address the global food security crisis.

KABUL – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has rapidly deployed food and logistics equipment to support communities devasted by the 22 June earthquake that struck near the city of Khost. 18 trucks are being deployed to the earthquake-affected areas carrying emergency supplies, including High Energy Biscuits (HEB) and mobile storage units. WFP plans to provide emergency food to an initial 3,000 households and is ready to ramp up its support pending results of ongoing post-disaster assessments.