News releases

Findings of a new hunger report to be launched during a High-Level Event of the Global Network Against Food Crises, Brussels, 2-3 April 2019

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.

AWEIL, South Sudan, 26 March 2019 – Tens of thousands of school children in some of South Sudan’s most food insecure areas will benefit from a new European Union (EU) funded education in emergencies programme launched today in Aweil. The contribution, worth €24.4 million, will provide hot daily meals to 75,000 school children, help train some 1,600 teachers, equip learners with educational supplies and provide psycho-social support services for 40,000 children who are currently enrolled in schools and those out of school.

Abuja, Nigeria – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a contribution of US$2 million from the Government of Japan that will provide life-changing support to people and communities affected by insecurity in northeastern Nigeria.

DAMASCUS – Contributions from the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) have played a major role in providing emergency assistance to conflict-affected families in Syria, says the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

ROME/BEIRA – The Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, David Beasley, is to travel tomorrow to Mozambique to draw attention to the devastation caused by Cyclone Idai.

CAIRO – The Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) David Beasley has ended a three-day visit to Egypt where he visited WFP operations in villages close to the county’s historic town of Luxor in Upper Egypt.

ABIDJAN/ROME – The Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), David Beasley, will be on an official visit to Côte d’Ivoire from 24 to 25 March.

LIMA – The TV reality show ‘Cocina con Causa’ (‘Cooking for a Cause’) has won a Humanitarian Award in the Outstanding Achievement category of the 2018 Best Shorts Competition. The programme, which seeks to improve the dietary practices of ordinary Peruvian families, was made by TV Peru in partnership with the UN World Food Programme.

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.

YOKOHAMA– The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a total of US$69 million in funding from the Government of Japan to provide vital food, nutrition and resilience building support in 28 countries across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

KAMPALA - The Government of Uganda and United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are investigating whether there is a connection between recent illnesses reported in two districts in Karamoja and Super Cereal, a fortified blended food distributed by WFP for prevention of malnutrition.

JERUSALEM – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has received a contribution of more than US$800,000 from the Government of Japan to help bolster food security in Gaza whose inhabitants are experiencing high levels of deprivation.

ALEXANDRIA – The Ambassador of Canada to Egypt and the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Deputy Country Director visited today one of the schools of their joint school feeding project that has assisted over 1 million Egyptian and Syrian students over the past 4 years.

KAMPALA – The World Food Programme (WFP) has suspended distributing Super Cereal – a fortified blended food – in Uganda after scores of people were taken sick and were admitted to health centres following local food distributions in the Karamoja region in the Northeast.

ROME – Tomorrow marks the eighth anniversary of the start of the Syria conflict.

Cairo, EGYPT – The Ministry of Education (MOE) in Egypt and the World Food Programme (WFP) are introducing new digital tools and technology in community schools to help reduce the technology gap between children in schools in rural areas and their more privileged peers in the formal education system.  

KATHMANDU – Ekta Adhikari, a 28 year old Nepali national working in Ethiopia with the World Food Programme (WFP), was on board flight ET 302 that crashed soon after take-off from Addis Ababa on Sunday morning. 

ROME – The World Food Programme is in mourning for seven WFP staff members who lost their lives in the Ethiopian Airlines tragedy yesterday.

See below for link of a subsequent statement issued by WFP on 11 March 2019.

ROME – Today is a profoundly sad one for the World Food Programme, as we are in mourning for the seven WFP staff members who lost their lives this morning in the Ethiopian Airlines tragedy.

ROME – A group of prominent women joined the three Rome-based United Nations agencies today, to mark International Women’s Day at an event recognising women’s contributions to building smart solutions for those who are excluded from decision making and influencing development in all sectors.

Nairobi, 6 March 2019 – The Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, released today US$500,000 from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support the creation of a regional common logistics services staging area in Entebbe, Uganda, to strengthen Ebola readiness and response in the region.

ABIDJAN – The fourth edition of the African Day of School Feeding, celebrated under the theme “Investing in home-grown school feeding for achieving Zero Hunger and sustaining inclusive education for all, including refugees, returnees and internally-displaced persons in Africa” was officially opened today by His Excellency Daniel Kablan DUNCAN, Vice President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, and celebrated under his distinguished patronage.

ROME-ABIDJAN – African leaders are gathering this week in Abidjan to celebrate Africa Day of School Feeding.  The event hosted by the African Union and the government of Cote d’Ivoire is an arena for governments to celebrate gains and confirm future plans for school feeding programmes across Africa.