News releases

NEW YORK/GENEVA/ROME - "United Nations Security Council resolution 2642 – which allows for life-saving humanitarian aid to be delivered to north-west Syria from across the Turkish border – is set to expire in eight days. If the Council fails to extend it, the consequences will be catastrophic for 4.1 million people in non-Government controlled areas. Most of them are women and children who need assistance just to survive at the peak of winter and amidst a serious cholera outbreak.

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.

SANAA/DUBAI – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a $20 million contribution from the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) to help meet the urgent food needs of the most vulnerable households in Yemen.

YEREVAN – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a US$ 1 million contribution from the Government of Switzerland to improve resilience and provide a long-term economic support to the border communities of Armenia. Through the aid approved by the Swiss Development Agency (SDC), WFP will directly target 3,000 people from 15 borderline settlements․

KINSHASA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has reached some 1.2 million vulnerable people with US$ 17.5 million cash assistance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) this year thanks in part to a contribution from the European Union (EU).

Bishkek – The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in the Kyrgyz Republic will receive US$1 million from the Government of Japan to support thousands affected by the recent Kyrgyz-Tajik border clashes.

HARARE – The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has today contributed US$36.7 million on behalf of the American people to help the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) provide food assistance at the peak of the lean season between October and March next year.

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.

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.

YUZHNY / ROME – The first maritime shipment of Ukrainian wheat grain for humanitarian operations run by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) left Ukraine’s Yuzhny (Pivdennyi) Port today, another important milestone in efforts to get much needed Ukrainian grain out of the conflict-hit country, back into global markets, and to countries worst affected by the global food crisis.

NB: This is a re-issue of a 23 June 2022 joint FAO-WFP news release. This version corrects the number of people facing acute levels of food insecurity in Cabo Verde.

DAKAR – The number of people affected by food insecurity in Cabo Verde is set to spike with more than 46,000 women, men and children – almost 10 percent of the population - facing an acute deterioration in food security between June and August this year. This represents a threat to the country’s hard-won gains in food security over recent years forcing the Government to declare a social and economic national emergency on 20 June. If not urgently addressed, this will severely disrupt food access and agricultural production, putting more lives at risk as the country depends largely on imports to meet its food needs.

DAKAR –The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in partnership with the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), and the Senegalese Ministry of Economy, Plan and Cooperation, today launched the annual forum of intergovernmental organisations from West Africa, to examine and address the impact of emerging risks and challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the unfolding crisis in Ukraine.

Conflict, weather extremes, economic shocks, the lingering impacts of COVID-19, and the ripple effects from the war in Ukraine push millions of people in countries across the world into poverty and hunger – as food and fuel price spikes drive nations closer to instability says new hunger hotspots report

ROME – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today issued a stark warning of multiple, looming food crises, driven by conflict, climate shocks, the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, and massive public debt burdens - exacerbated by the ripple effects of the war in Ukraine which has pushed food and fuel prices to accelerate in many nations across the globe. These shocks hit in contexts already characterized by rural marginalization and fragile agrifood systems.

PANAMA CITY – The number of severely food insecure people has shot up by over half a million between December 2021 and March 2022 in Latin America and the Caribbean, as the region struggles to cope with the fallout of COVID-19, now coupled with the consequences of the conflict in Ukraine, warns the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

NEW YORK – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director, David Beasley, addressed the United Nations Security Council today on the impact of the war in Ukraine on global food security. Here are selected highlights from his remarks:

SANA’A/YOKOHAMA – The United Nations World Food Programme has welcomed a US$ 10 million contribution from the Government of Japan to provide life-saving food assistance in Yemen, where people are pushed to the brink due to a prolonged conflict, an economic crisis, and the fallout of the war in Ukraine.

CAIRO – The war in Ukraine has dealt a fresh hammer blow to Syria’s ability to feed itself just as the country struggles to deal with levels of hunger that are up by half since 2019, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today on the eve of the annual donor pledging conference held in Brussels.

ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme is today calling for the re-opening of the ports in the Odesa area of southern Ukraine so that food being produced in the war-torn country can flow freely to the rest of the world, before the current global hunger crisis spins out of control.

Banjul – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) launched, today, cash transfers to assist internally displaced people (IDPs), refugees, and host families in Foni Kansala (West Coast region), as the conflict in the Senegalese Casamance region has led to cross-border displacement.

NAIROBI – Millions of displaced families across eastern Africa will fall deeper into hunger as food rations dwindle due to humanitarian resources being stretched to the limit as the world grapples with a toxic cocktail of conflict, climate shocks, and Covid-19, combined with spiraling costs of food and fuel, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned today.

ROME – France’s Europe and Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Agriculture and Food Julien Denormandie and EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič met with David Beasley, Executive Director (ED) of the World Food Program (WFP), to discuss the dramatic consequences of the war in Ukraine on food security, especially for developing countries and the world’s most vulnerable countries.

DAKAR – The number of women, men and children affected by a food and nutrition crisis in West and Central Africa is expected to reach a new record high in June 2022 - quadrupling in just three years from 10.7 million in 2019 to 41 million in 2022 - unless appropriate measures are urgently taken, reveals the Cadre Harmonisé food security analysis released in March 2022.

DILI – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a US$ 1.5 million donation from the Government of Timor-Leste for the agency’s humanitarian response in Ukraine.

Lviv – The United Nations World Food Programme has welcomed an additional contribution of US$14 million from the Government of Japan to provide humanitarian food assistance to people affected by the conflict in Ukraine. This brings the total contribution by Japan for the Ukraine crisis to US$ 28 million.

CAIRO – As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins, the soaring cost of food staples in import-dependent Middle Eastern and North African countries is creating ever greater challenges for millions of families already struggling to keep hunger at bay, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today.