News releases

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.

Dili - A funding contribution of US$150,000 from the European Union, channeled through the World Health Organization is helping the World Food Programme continue its humanitarian air passenger and cargo flights in support of the COVID-19 response in Timor-Leste.

Rome – Hunger and famine will persist and there will be unequal recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic unless more women in rural and urban areas hold leadership positions with increased decision-making power, say the heads of the three United Nations’ food agencies ahead of their joint International Women’s Day event on 8 March.

KINSHASA– Reaffirming the United Nations World Food Programme’s commitment to build stronger communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, David Beasley, today, concluded a visit to the country which included a meeting with the Country’s new President, Félix Tshisekedi.

NAIROBI – UNHCR, the U.N. Refugee Agency, and World Food Programme (WFP) appealed today for US$266 million to end food ration cuts for over 3 million refugees in Eastern Africa. Funding shortages have forced cuts up to 60 percent. The agencies warned of growing risks including increased malnutrition and anaemia, stunted child growth and a myriad of protection risks.

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.

KAMPALA - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today commended various donors for increasing their initial funding pledges for 1.26 million refugees in Uganda and urged more donors to step forward to prevent deeper cuts in food assistance for them.

STATEMENT BY ROCCO LEONE

ADDIS ABABA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is appealing urgently for US$107 million for its emergency response in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region to buy and deliver food for 1 million people and provide specialized nutrition support for 875,000 children and pregnant or nursing mothers after months of insecurity.

ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has the following updates on the tragic armed attack in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on 22 February:

ROME – The COVID-19 pandemic risks reversing a decade of hard-won gains in global efforts to provide nutritious food to the world’s most vulnerable children through a free daily meal in school, the United Nations World Food Programme said in a report released today.

Harare - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes an additional US$7 million in new funding from Switzerland, through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), which will go directly towards assisting families living in Zimbabwe’s urban areas to strengthen their skills and ability to cope in the face of economic and climate shocks.

ROME – Hunger in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua has increased almost fourfold over the past two years - from 2.2 million people in 2018 to close to 8 million people in 2021 – a result of the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 and years of extreme climate events. Of this figure, 1.7 million people are in the ‘Emergency’ category of food insecurity and require urgent food assistance.

TEHRAN – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a generous contribution of US$875,000 from the Government of Japan towards its assistance programme for refugees in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

DUSHANBE – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has begun delivering fortified wheat flour and vegetable oil to the families of vulnerable schoolchildren in the Khatlon Region of Tajikistan, supported by USD 1 million from the Russian Federation.

ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has expressed its deepest sympathy and condolences to the family, colleagues and friends of three people killed, today, in an attack on a delegation travelling on a field visit in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

ESHPEROV – A pilot greenhouse project to supplement school meals with locally-grown fresh vegetables was launched today at Dogdurov school in Eshperov village of Issyk-Kul province. The programme aims to strengthen the capacity of all Kyrgyz primary schools to prepare and serve fresh and nutritious meals throughout the country.

ROME – The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), a critical lifeline transporting humanitarian workers and lifesaving cargo to some of the most challenging and hard-to-reach locations, urgently requires US$ 204 million to continue existing operations beyond February 2021.

Kathmandu - The Government of Japan has agreed to extend grant assistance of Japanese Yen 364 million (about US$3.47 million / NRs.405 million) to the United Nations World Food Programme (UN WFP) Nepal for implementing the Mother and Child Health and Nutrition Programme in five vulnerable districts of Provinces 1 and 2.

Lilongwe, Malawi, February 17, 2021 – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Department of Nutrition, HIV and AIDS in the Ministry of Health today welcome a timely contribution of EUR 550,000 (about 515 million Malawi Kwacha) from the Government of Ireland to support interventions that prevent malnutrition in Malawi.

CAIRO – A record 12.4 million Syrians - nearly 60 percent of the population - are now food insecure, according to alarming new national data from the UN World Food Programme (WFP). In just over one year, an additional 4.5 million Syrians have become food insecure.

CAIRO – In support of Egypt’s Ministry of Social Solidarity (MOSS) and in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) launched today a three-day training to develop counselling and monitoring capacity of MOSS’s community workers.

BANGUI – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a US$1.6 million (JPY 178 million) contribution from the Government of Japan to provide much-needed food assistance to vulnerable people in the Central African Republic, amid a deepening humanitarian crisis.

Humanitarian crisis continues to exert a terrible toll on children, warn FAO, UNICEF, WFP and WHO

SANA’A/ADEN/ROME/NEW YORK/GENEVA - Nearly 2.3 million children under the age of five in Yemen are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2021, four United Nations agencies warned today. Of these, 400,000 are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition and could die if they do not receive urgent treatment.

Kigali – Today, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced it would reduce food assistance to refugees in Rwanda by a dramatic 60 percent, as of March 2021. Some 135,000 Burundian and Congolese refugees in camps in Rwanda rely on humanitarian assistance to meet their basic food needs each month.