News releases

Beira - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today launched a joint voucher programme in Dondo district in Sofala province to address the essential food, hygiene, and household needs of vulnerable families affected by Cyclone Idai, which left a trail of devastation across Mozambique in March 2019.

LUXEMBOURG – Luxembourg has contributed €500,000 ($556,180) to support emergency telecommunications being provided by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Libya through the humanitarian community’s Emergency Telecommunications Sector.

PROVIDENCIALES – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), and the Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands, are holding a high-level symposium on 27 June to discuss how national social protection programmes and systems can play a greater role in disaster risk management and in emergency response.

ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme has started a partial suspension of food assistance operations in areas of Yemen under the control of the Sana’a-based authorities. The decision was taken as a last resort after lengthy negotiations stalled on an agreement to introduce controls to prevent the diversion of food away from some of the most vulnerable people in Yemen.

BEIJING – – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and China’s Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM) have agreed to collaborate towards strengthening emergency preparedness and response capacity.

HARARE – The Government of Japan contributed US$350,000 to respond to emergency needs in Zimbabwe following Cyclone Idai. The contribution, provided to the World Food Programme, will support immediate food needs in the worst-affected areas of the country.

April 25th, 2019, Panama City. – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) today warned that prolonged droughts and heavy rain have destroyed more than half of the maize and bean crops of the subsistence farmers along the Central American Dry Corridor, leaving them without food reserves and affecting their food security.

LILONGWE – The Government of Japan has provided a contribution of USD 1.25 million to respond to emergency needs in Malawi following Cyclone Idai. The contribution, provided to the World Food Programme, will support immediate food and cash-based transfer to flood-affected population and early recovery efforts, while the contribution to UNICEF will support child protection and menstrual hygiene measures in camps and communities.

Lilongwe – The United States Government has contributed US$3 million to for the emergency response to Cyclone Idai in Malawi. The funds, provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Food for Peace, will support immediate food needs in the worst-affected areas of the country. They will cover cash-based assistance to flood-affected people as well as early recovery efforts.

BEIRA – One month on since Cyclone Idai struck Mozambique on March 14, the United Nations World Food Programme has reached one million people with food assistance and continues to expand its emergency response while launching recovery and reconstruction interventions.

CAIRO - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed contributions totalling more than US$36 million from the Government of Japan to provide food assistance in seven countries across the Middle East and North Africa.

Harare – Switzerland has allocated an additional CHF1 million (US$1.1 million) in humanitarian assistance following the UN and the Government of Zimbabwe’s Flash Appeal that was launched at the end of February 2019. The funding provided through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) will be used to address the humanitarian needs necessitated by the recent drought and the rise in food insecurity in the country. The response to the Flash Appeal follows another recent allocation of US$2 million from the Swiss Government in response to Cyclone Idai covering Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi.

Beira/Maputo - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a European Union contribution of €1 million support of the WFP-led global Logistics Cluster’s work on behalf the humanitarian community to bring emergency relief to the people of Mozambique in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai and subsequent flooding.

Harare, 3 April, 2019 – The United States Government has provided an additional contribution of US$2.5 million to respond to emergency needs in Zimbabwe following Cyclone Idai. The contribution, provided through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Food for Peace, will support immediate food needs in the most affected areas of Manicaland Province.

HARARE – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is aware of a news article alleging shortages of Jet A-1 fuel in Zimbabwe that would impact negatively on relief efforts. The information in this article is outdated.

A report presented today jointly by the European Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) finds that that around 113 million people in 53 countries experienced acute food insecurity in 2018, compared to 124 million in 2017

HARARE – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed a €250,000 contribution (US$284,414) from the European Union to help provide urgently-needed logistical support to the humanitarian response in the wake of the cyclone that has devastated eastern Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique.

BEIRA: The United Nations World Food Programme on Friday declared the Mozambique flood crisis a Level 3 emergency, putting it among a handful of top response priorities for the organisation, on a par with Yemen, Syria and South Sudan.

BANGUI – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched an airlift operation to deliver life-saving food supplies to 18,000 people in Zemio, 1000 km East of the capital Bangui. The region is on the brink of a severe food and nutritional crisis, due to a combination of insecurity and transport infrastructure challenges, which hamper humanitarian access to the area.

Sana’a, Yemen – The United Nations World Food Programme has hailed a breakthrough in its emergency operation in Yemen after managing to reach the Red Sea Mills in Hodeidah for the first time in six months.

22 February 2019, Juba - Nearly 7 million people in South Sudan could face acute food insecurity at the height of this lean season (May-July), three United Nations agencies warned today, urging for scaled-up humanitarian assistance and better access to humanitarian relief.

ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) received US$440 million of flexible funding in 2018, a ten percent increase from 2017. Flexible contributions allow WFP to use funds wherever and whenever needs are greatest, giving it the agility to respond to sudden-onset emergencies as well as the means to sustain lifesaving assistance in neglected and protracted crises.

ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is demanding an immediate end to the diversion of humanitarian food relief in Yemen after uncovering evidence of the practice in the capital, Sana’a, and other parts of the country controlled by the Ansarullah (Houthi) movement.

Kinshasa - With widening violence, largescale displacement, poor harvests and endemic poverty nearly doubling the number of acutely food insecure people in DRC this year to 13.1 million, the World Food Programme (WFP) significantly expanded its operations, reaching a record 5 million, a twofold increase from 2017.