News releases

Carl Skau: 'We visited Gaza today and nothing quite prepared me for the fear, the chaos, and the despair we encountered'

NAIROBI – Devastating floods threaten to worsen food insecurity across eastern Africa as heavy rains lash a region that less than a year ago was in the grips of drought, warns the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

DAKAR – With a Euro 48.5 million contribution from the European Union (EU) received through its Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO), WFP was able to respond to the severe food crisis in eight countries of West and Central Africa during the 2023 hunger gap and beyond.

SANA’A – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announces the pause of General Food Distributions (GFD) in areas of Yemen under the Sana'a Based Authorities' (SBA) control, driven by limited funding and the absence of an agreement with the authorities on a smaller programme that matches available resources to the neediest families. 

ROME – The resumption of hostilities in Gaza will only intensify the catastrophic hunger crisis that already threatens to overwhelm the civilian population.

WASHINGTON, DC – United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Goodwill Ambassador and multi-platinum global recording artist Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye is directing US$2.5 million from his XO Humanitarian Fund toward WFP’s humanitarian response efforts in Gaza.

GUATEMALA CITY/TEGUCIGALPA – The United Nations World Food Programme’s (WFP) governing body, the Executive Board, concluded a visit to Guatemala and Honduras to see how the agency is helping to build sustainable food systems and value chains for climate-smart agriculture along the Dry Corridor, in a concerted effort with communities and governments.

GAZA – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) delivered desperately needed food to more than 120,000 people in Gaza during the initial pause in fighting but has reiterated that the supplies it was able to provide were woefully inadequate to address the level of hunger seen by staff in the UN shelters and communities.

Yerevan, ARMENIA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a grant of US$1.1 million from the United States Government, made possible through USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). This timely contribution will enable WFP to provide essential emergency food assistance to refugees residing in Armenia.

CAIRO – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) extends its heartfelt gratitude to the prominent actress Hend Sabry for her unwavering support and dedication during her tenure as WFP’s Goodwill Ambassador for the past thirteen years. 

ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is activating its revamped approach to operations in Ethiopia, a major step which will start to reach 3.2 million people with food assistance for the first time since June 2023. WFP food aid was suspended nationwide following reports of large-scale diversions earlier this year.

GAZA — With only ten percent of necessary food supplies entering Gaza since the beginning of the conflict, the Strip now faces a massive food gap and widespread hunger as nearly the entire population is in desperate need of food assistance, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned today.

MOGADISHU – Climate extremes will keep hunger in Somalia at record highs, warned the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today, as deadly floods sweep the country, devastating deeply food-insecure communities who are still battling to recover from the country’s longest recorded drought.

VIENTIANE – The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare today announced an expansion of its activities to improve community and government capacities in disaster risk reduction in the north of the country. Nearly 16,000 people in four districts of Oudomxay and Phongsaly province will benefit from this cooperation implemented by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), under the leadership of the Ministry and with support from USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance.

PALO, LEYTE – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today handed over logistics equipment, including a reach truck and a rice milling machine, to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Regional Warehouse at a ceremony in Palo, Leyte. This is part of WFP’s broader effort to enhance the region’s emergency preparedness capacities against climate shocks, after it was devasted by Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) ten years ago.

CAIRO – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Egypt received a first-of-its-kind contribution from the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency at a total of US$1.4 million to support people who fled the violence in Sudan.

JUBA – Children in flood-affected parts of South Sudan are expected to face extreme levels of malnutrition in the first half of 2024 as the climate crisis tightens its grip on the country, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today.

CAIRO – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director, Cindy McCain issued an urgent plea from the Rafah border crossing for safe, expanded humanitarian access to Gaza as humanitarian needs skyrocket and critical food supplies reach dangerously low levels.

“We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”

Kabul - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a USD 1 million contribution from Japan to provide emergency food assistance in the earthquake-affected Herat Province in the west of Afghanistan. This vital aid will help support nearly 33,000 thousand people affected by a series of earthquakes with magnitudes reaching 6.3 that struck Herat Province within a span of eight days this month. Dozens of villages were affected, many of them entirely flattened.

CAIRO – Thousands of civilians on Sunday morning stormed a UN-run warehouse in Gaza’s middle area, where the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is storing some food commodities. The morning’s events followed a harrowing 24-hour communication blackout and persistent access challenges that brought all WFP operations to a halt, leaving staff and partners incommunicado.

ROME – The catastrophic conditions facing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza risk getting worse still, due to severe fuel shortages which threaten to bring food and other humanitarian operations to a standstill.

NEW YORK/GENEVA/ROME 21 October 2023 – “A first, but limited, shipment of life-saving humanitarian supplies from the United Nations and the Egyptian Red Crescent entered Gaza today on 20 trucks, passing through the Rafah Crossing.

PRAIA – The Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) has generously contributed US$ 1 million to provide daily nutritious meals to 90,000 school children in Cabo-Verde during the 2023-2024 school year. This contribution comes from ECOWAS’ Regional Food Security Reserve built up in February 2013 to respond to food security crises across the region. It complements the efforts already made by ECOWAS and its partners, as well as those already undertaken by the Government of Cabo Verde.

NEW DELHI: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) facilitated a crucial learning visit for a high-level Nigerian delegation to India. India’s rice fortification journey inspired the delegation of government officials from ministries, health, food security and education departments, food regulatory bodies, and the private sector to advocate for mandatory integration of fortified rice in Nigeria's food-based social safety networks.