LONDON/BEIRUT – As part of its massive humanitarian response to the Syrian crisis, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is rolling out an innovative electronic voucher programme in Lebanon that will allow hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees to meet their food needs and help boost the local economy.
BEIRUT – A ship carrying wheat from the United States of America -- enough to help feed more than 3.5 million Syrians for one month -- has delivered its cargo to the port of Beirut as part of a massive emergency food assistance operation by the UN World Food Programme (WFP). This is the second ship to bring a US wheat contribution to support WFP’s life-saving work in Syria in less than six months.
BAMAKO - An Emergency Food Security Assessment conducted jointly by the Government of Mali, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and 15 other partners shows that three out of four households living in northern regions of the country are food insecure and heavily reliant on food assistance.
AMMAN – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Jordan has completed its first distribution of food vouchers to all Syrian refugees living in Zaatari camp, now home to more than 100,000 people, allowing refugees for the first time to buy the food of their choice from designated shops inside the camp.
KABUL – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation & Livestock of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan today inaugurated the country’s first Strategic Grain Reserve (SGR).
SANA’A, YEMEN – The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ms. Valerie Amos, and the Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), Ms. Ertharin Cousin, wrapped up a four-day visit to Yemen by calling for increased support, especially from the Gulf region, for humanitarian relief efforts in the country.
AMMAN – As the number of Syrian refugees reaches the two million mark, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) appealed today for humanitarian access inside Syria to avoid a situation in which hunger becomes an additional factor pushing more people to flee the country. In August, the UN food agency was only able to dispatch food for 2.4 million people -- short of its goal of feeding three million people a month -- as a result of the deteriorating security situation.
ERBIL, IRAQ – As the exodus continues of Syrians into the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the leaders of the UN refugee agency and the World Food Programme paid tribute to the government here for giving refuge to almost 200,000 people, including some 47,000 arriving in the last two weeks. Despite the strain of accommodating such a large number, the regional authorities have opened their border and offered land to accommodate refugees in camps.
ERBIL, IRAQ – A chartered flight has arrived in Erbil carrying urgent relief items for the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to meet the immediate humanitarian needs of Syrian refugees fleeing violence in Syria and crossing into northern Iraq.
SANA’A – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed the arrival of a consignment of wheat from the government of the United States of America that WFP will distribute to 3.9 million food-insecure people in 15 governorates.
This year the rainy season in Mali has started late which may affect the harvest. Mali is just emerging from the 2011 food crisis and last year’s conflict which displaced many hundreds of thousands. The World Food Programme is assisting the farmers in Segou, some 200 kilometres northeast of the capital, Bamako
NIAMEY – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a contribution of €15.5 million (US$20.5 million) from the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department (ECHO) to address both the food security and nutritional condition of the most vulnerable households in Niger.
DOHUK – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed today a generous contribution of €10 million (US$13.3 million) from the Government of Germany that will help provide critical food assistance to thousands of vulnerable Syrian refugees in Iraq and neighbouring countries.
JUBA – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is launching an operation including the use of helicopters to bring urgently-needed food assistance to tens of thousands of people who have fled to hard-to-reach areas to escape violence in Pibor County, in the Republic of South Sudan’s Jonglei State.
KHARTOUM – New violence in Sudan’s western region of Darfur has prompted more than 250,000 people to flee their villages and abandon their livelihoods since the start of the year, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said today.
KHARTOUM – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed another generous contribution towards its operations in Sudan from the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department (ECHO).
ADDIS ABABA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched its first cash distributions to refugees in Ethiopia this month, with the financial support of the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO).
TEHRAN – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today warmly welcomed a contribution from the Government of France for its refugee operation in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
ROME/VATICAN CITY – His Holiness Pope Francis this morning granted a private audience to Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The meeting took place immediately upon Cousin’s return from Syria and following her recent visit to Israel and Palestine.
KABUL – The World Food Programme (WFP) today announced a contribution of 10 million British Pounds (more than 15 million US dollars) from the UK’s development agency DFID to its programmes in Afghanistan. The donation will enable WFP reach up to 535,000 people with 17,000 metric tons of food, including wheat and wheat flour, pulses such as split peas and salt. This food will be distributed in emergencies to victims of conflict and natural disasters, as well as helping WFP implement projects to prevent and treat acute malnutrition.
GAZIANTEP – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has received a generous contribution of €15 million (US$20 million) from the Government of Germany that will help provide critical food assistance to tens of thousands of Syrian refugees who fled the fighting in Syria. The latest contribution brings total German support to WFP’s Syria emergency operations to close to €25 million (US$33 million).
DAMASCUS – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has distributed urgent food aid to vulnerable families in Al-Qusayr where some of the heaviest fighting in Syria has taken place in recent weeks. Meanwhile the United Nations today announced projected financial costs for the humanitarian operation totalling US$4.4 billion; this figure represents the escalating needs just for the balance of 2013. The WFP share of this appeal, US$1 billion, will provide food assistance for the growing refugee population outside Syria as well as the increasing numbers of those inside the country without access to food.
KHARTOUM – The United Nations World Food Programme today welcomed a United States Government contribution of lentils, sorghum and oil fortified with vitamin A which will be used to assist close to four million vulnerable people across the country including over 1.4 million displaced people in Darfur.
