News releases

NEW YORK – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director, David Beasley, addressed the United Nations Security Council today on Yemen, conflict and food insecurity. Here are selected highlights from his remarks

SANA’A – Yemen is spiraling into a catastrophe as humanitarian funding dries up, forcing the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to scale back food assistance to millions of hungry families, WFP Executive Director David Beasley warned today, as he ended a two-day visit to the conflict-ravaged country.

Jerusalem – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed an additional contribution of €3 million (US$3 million) from the Government of Germany which will help WFP provide critical food assistance to 123,000 people among the most vulnerable and food insecure Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

ROME – The COVID-19 pandemic could almost double the number of people suffering acute hunger, pushing it to more than a quarter of a billion by the end of 2020, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today as it and other partners released a new report on food crises around the world.

Annual report on acute food security and nutrition published today.

Brussels/Rome/New York – Today an international alliance of UN, governmental, and non-governmental agencies working to address the root causes of extreme hunger have released a new edition of their annual Global Report on Food Crises.

Transcript as delivered of remarks by David Beasley, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director to today’s virtual session of the UN Security Council on the Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Protecting Civilians Affected by Conflict-Induced Hunger

NEW YORK – Forgive me for speaking bluntly, but I’d like to lay out for you very clearly what the world is facing at this very moment. At the same time while dealing with a COVID-19 pandemic, we are also on the brink of a hunger pandemic.

KHARTOUM – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Sudan received a contribution of US$1 million from the Government of Japan, for the treatment of acute malnutrition of 127,000 infants, mothers and pregnant women in Central and West Darfur states.

JUBA - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a US$3.1 million contribution from the Government of Japan to help strengthen communities’ resilience to food shocks as South Sudan braces for tough times ahead.

BAMAKO – The Government of Japan has contributed US$3 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to provide urgent food assistance to 100,000 newly displaced persons and host communities affected by conflict and intercommunal violence in northern and central Mali.

JERUSALEM – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed a contribution of CAD$6 million (approximately US$4.3 million) from the Government of Canada to provide much-needed food assistance to Palestinians facing hardship in Gaza and the West Bank.

Jerusalem – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed a €250,000 contribution from France to provide essential food for the poorest and most food insecure non-refugee populations in the Gaza Strip.

Transcript as delivered of remarks by UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley during today’s UN Security Council consultation on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

NEW YORK –

I honestly wish I had some good news. It seems like a repeat performance of what we have done in 2018, 2019. I would literally like to be pretty clear and pretty blunt about the situation because I don’t want a single person to leave here with any doubt about the scale of the humanitarian disaster that we’re now confronting in Yemen.

Maseru – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed a contribution from the People’s Republic of China that has helped WFP reach 36,000 vulnerable people with food and nutrition assistance

PORT-AU-PRINCE – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Haiti welcomes a contribution of €2 million from the European Union (EU) that will provide emergency cash assistance to 27,000 severely food insecure people over four months and support the coordination of humanitarian actors on food security and cash-based interventions.

DAMASCUS – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a donation of €2 million from the European Union (EU) for monthly food assistance for Syrian families facing unprecedented levels of hunger.

Yaoundé – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a US$ 1.87 million (1,045,748,252 FCFA) contribution from the Government of Japan to provide food and nutrition assistance to more than 207,000 people in the Far North, North, Adamawa, East, North West and South West regions of Cameroon.

KABUL/LONDON– The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a contribution of £15 million (US$20 million) from the United Kingdom towards its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to help families in Afghanistan who are facing food shortages get through winter.

BANGUI – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a contribution of US$ 2.7 million (Yen 300 million) from the Government of Japan to provide food assistance to vulnerable people including women and children affected by armed conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic in the Central African Republic (C.A.R).

ANTANANARIVO – Southern Madagascar is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe, with 1.5 million people—half the region’s population—needing immediate emergency food assistance, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today. Three straight years of drought have wiped out harvests and hampered people's access to food and COVID-19 is compounding their suffering.

Levels of hunger reach record levels, requiring urgent action

SANA’A/ROME/NEW YORK – The window to prevent famine in Yemen is narrowing as new figures reveal record highs of acute food insecurity in the country, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF warned today.

KATHMANDU - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a contribution of £4.49 million (equivalent to US$5.75 million or 678 million Nepali Rupees) from the United Kingdom to help some of Nepal’s most vulnerable people cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and provide food security and nutrition recovery support for their families.

Jerusalem – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed a €400,000 contribution from Spain to provide much-needed food assistance to more than 34,000 vulnerable Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, most of them women and children.

This is a summary of what was said by WFP spokesperson Tomson Phiri – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

GENEVA – The United Nations World Food Programme warns that a crippling fuel shortage in Yemen is making an already catastrophic food security situation far worse and appeals for an urgent solution to this man-made crisis.

YOKOHAMA – The United Nations World Food Programme has welcomed a total contribution of US$110 million from the Government of Japan towards its food assistance and livelihood support to vulnerable people in 37 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa

ADEN/SANA’A – The Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme issued an urgent plea for peace in Yemen and called for funding to help the most vulnerable hungry families as he wrapped up a two-day visit to the country where the worst famine the world has seen in modern history is now looming.