News releases

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA– The Pacific humanitarian air service launched a flight today, delivering 6.5 tonnes of essential medical cargo and moving humanitarian personnel to support the COVID-19 response in Fiji, Kiribati and Nauru.

OUAGADOUGOU – Urgent and sustained action is needed to address worsening food and nutrition insecurity in Burkina Faso, say the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), citing alarming new data. Some 3.3 million people are estimated to be facing acute food insecurity during the current lean season, that period which precedes the harvest in September.

LUSAKA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a EUR 5 million contribution from the European Union (EU) that will help provide cash assistance to 655,000 food insecure people in urban areas of Zambia. These vulnerable communities have been strongly affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19 and would struggle to get by over the next few months without that crucial support.

CAIRO – In support of Egypt’s Ministry of Social Solidarity (MOSS), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has started providing financial assistance for more than 40,000 mothers registered under the Ministry’s ‘Takaful and Karama’ programme and their children under 2 years to prevent malnutrition and help families fulfil the nutritional needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

KINSHASA – As conflict and the coronavirus escalate in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), aggravating one of the world’s biggest but most under-funded hunger crises, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today warned that millions of lives could be lost unless the international community steps up with more help.

SILIANA – Within the framework of a project promoting value chains for the territorial development of Siliana, financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) – in cooperation with the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Affairs – has started its first ever cash transfers in Tunisia. The three-month initiative is designed to help more than 530 families from the Siliana region whose children are no longer receiving school meals due to the closure of schools during the COVID-19 crisis.

PESHAWAR: The Elementary & Secondary Education Department (E&SED), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) have launched an education support programme for adolescent girl students in Newly Merged Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The pilot project aims to provide income support to families of adolescent girls so that they are able to meet their food and nutrition needs during COVID-19 and continue their schooling.

Beirut – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley announced today that the organization is bringing 17,500 metric tons of wheat flour and a three-month supply of wheat into Lebanon to help replenish the country’s food reserves as part of a rapid logistics operation that will also involve setting up warehouses and mobile grain storage units.

ROME / SINGAPORE – Singapore Airlines (SIA) and the Temasek Foundation are partnering with the World Food Programme (WFP) to support the global COVID-19 response to help transport essential medical supplies and other health and humanitarian items by air to points of need around the world.

COLOMBO – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a new contribution of USD 550,000 from the United States Government in support of its collaborative efforts with the Government of Sri Lanka to strengthen emergency preparedness amongst communities affected by climate shocks.

DHAKA –The Ministry of Food and the World Food Programme formalised the inclusion of fortified rice in Open Market Sales (OMS) today. Richard Ragan, Country Representative of the World Food Programme, Sarwar Mahmud, Director General of Directorate General of Food, and Md. Zahangir Alam, Chief Controller, Dhaka Rationing inaugurated the programme in Chand Uddan, Mohammadpur of Dhaka city corporation. Nutrition International (NI) and Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) will be supporting the advocacy for fortified rice in the programme.

DAKAR – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) was shocked to learn that a staff member of one of its partner organisations in the North West Region of Cameroon was killed by unidentified armed people.

London - The GSMA and United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are expanding their partnership to help the world’s most vulnerable people. Through the GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation programme, which has been funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) since 2017, this three-year collaboration will primarily focus on the use of mobile money to deliver digital assistance through cash-based transfers to save lives in global emergencies, including pandemics and natural disasters.

NADI, Fiji – Countries and territories of the Pacific Islands and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reached a milestone today with the launch of the humanitarian air service in the region. The first flight, from Nadi, Fiji to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, completed this morning, delivered 44 cubic metres of essential medical supplies that will be used in the Government of Papua New Guinea’s response to COVID-19.

Rome – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is extremely saddened by the Lebanon blasts and extends its condolences to the people of Lebanon, which has always been at the forefront of our humanitarian response in the region.

BANGUI – The World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed the first ever delivery of food assistance to the landlocked Central African Republic (C.A.R.) using barges along the Ubangui River from neighbouring Republic of Congo. The new supply route from Brazzaville to Bangui is an alternative and complementary supply line that will make live-saving food assistance available more quickly in C.A.R.

SUDAN—The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched its nutrition support programme for the first time in Khartoum for 175,000 pregnant and nursing women and children under five, in collaboration with the Khartoum State Ministry of Health (SMOH).

SEOUL/ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has received US$ 3 million from the Republic of Korea to help address the impacts of the desert locust outbreak in East Africa. The donation will provide a much-needed boost to several WFP operations where vulnerable communities are struggling with the impact that the desert locusts have had on their food security and livelihoods, as well as the triple threat of conflict, climate change and the socio-economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

KATHMANDU – Fortified rice, lentils and vegetable oil, totalling to nearly 1,500 MT, donated by the United States have been distributed by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of Nepal to school children (from Grade1-8) in rural areas who are missing out on nutritious school lunches they used to receive in Sudur Paschim and Karnali provinces.

SEOUL/ROME – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea has contributed US$ 2.5 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), enabling it to continue providing United Nations Humanitarian Air Services (UNHAS) in countries where conflicts, natural disasters and the socio-economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic are pushing millions into hunger and poverty.

KABUL – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a contribution of US$12 million from USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance in support of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Afghanistan, where the public health emergency is compounded by increasing levels of food insecurity and where many communities’ livelihoods are being obliterated.

DHAKA: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Oxfam Bangladesh and Green Delta Insurance Company Ltd. launched a new insurance scheme on 1 July to protect casual agricultural labourers in Bangladesh from catastrophic floods during this year’s monsoon season. The on-going flood has affected more than 1 million people in South Asia this month.

COLOMBO – The Government of Japan has donated a large shipment of canned fish, weighing 388 MT and worth JPY 300 million (LKR 519 million), to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of Sri Lanka, to meet the protein needs of school children covered by the national school meal programme.

BAGHDAD – The European Union has provided a new contribution of €5 million for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to provide food assistance to vulnerable families, over six months.

ROME/JOHANNESBURG – With COVID-19 aggravating an already severe hunger crisis in Zimbabwe, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today appealed for an additional US$250 million to support a rapidly expanding emergency operation for millions at-risk.