News releases

KHARTOUM - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is calling for US$24.6 million to meet the immediate needs of Ethiopian refugees seeking safety in Sudan. The conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia that escalated on 4 November, has forced more than 30,000 Ethiopians to flee across the border into Sudan.

ROME – The COVID-19 pandemic is reversing development gains and testing the foundations of global peace, yet it also presents an unprecedented opportunity to collaborate in helping governments and communities build back better. This is the core theme of a high-level virtual meeting in Rome today (1500 CET), bringing together top representatives of the United Na-tions, international financial institutions, African Union and European Union and governments.

TRIPOLI/TUNIS – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Libya welcomed a generous donation of €3.5 million from the Government of Italy to support WFP operations that include vital food assistance to over 60,000 vulnerable people across the country, support for emergency response operations and data collection to identify needs and guide humanitarian intervention.

AMMAN, 8 October 2020 - UN Agencies* in the region unveiled today “Rej’et El Sineh” [‘Learning is Back’], a song to encourage the return to learning for all children and youth across the region.

MAPUTO – WFP is extremely concerned about the escalating conflict and deteriorating food security situation in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, where over 300,000 people have fled their homes and villages, abandoning their crops and leaving them completely reliant on humanitarian assistance.

BEIRUT – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is radically expanding its support to a key Lebanese social assistance programme, with the goal of helping 270,000 people get through the triple shock caused by economic crisis, the COVID-19 lockdown and the blasts at Beirut port.

TRIPOLI/TUNIS – The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are expanding their support for food insecure refugees and asylum seekers in Libya with emergency food assistance in response to the severe socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country as well as the effects of the ongoing conflict.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is scaling up emergency food assistance to reach nearly 160,000 people across Sudan following floods that ravaged 17 of the country’s 18 states.

SANA’A – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a EUR 45 million contribution from the European Union (EU) to provide vital food assistance to families in Yemen facing acute food shortages as conflict, economic collapse and now the coronavirus pushes millions of people to the brink.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Release is the fastest funding allocation from the Central Emergency Response Fund in UN history

MOROTO, Uganda –The Government of Uganda and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are distributing take-home food rations to school children in the Karamoja sub-region in north-eastern Uganda to support home-learning while schools remain closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak across the country.

DUSHANBE – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) launched Cash for Work projects to support 15,000 vulnerable people in eastern Tajikistan who have been affected by the socio-economic shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kabul – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a new contribution of EUR 3.6 million from the European Union (EU) that will help provide lifesaving assistance to the most vulnerable Afghans affected by natural and man-made disasters.

KAMPALA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) received US$1 million from the Government of Denmark today to assist refugees in Kampala struggling because of the socio-economic impact of lockdowns to contain the spread of COVID-19.

PORT-AU-PRINCE – In a major institutional step towards building resilience against hunger, the Government of Haiti officially adopted its National Social Protection and Promotion Policy, supported by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today announced a massive rise in the number of hungry people it plans to assist around the world, as the devastating socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic push millions more people into food insecurity in low- and middle-income countries.

DAMASCUS – As a record number of Syrians are food insecure and struggling with rapidly increasing food prices, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a donation of EUR 130 million from the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to 4.8 million people.

SAN SALVADOR - Damage caused by Tropical Storm Amanda which lashed El Salvador is compounding the socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and is set to increase the number of food insecure people in El Salvador, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today.

KHARTOUM – The Government of Sudan and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support the government’s Family Support program that will provide Sudanese families direct cash transfers.