Latest World Food Programme News

US says a UN agency has agreed to help in distribution of aid to Gaza via sea route

Apr. 19, 2024 20:56 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.N. World Food Program has agreed to help deliver aid for the starving civilians of Gaza once the U.S. military completes a pier for transporting the humanitarian assistance by sea, U.S. officials said Friday. The involvement of the U.N. agency could help...

First UN food supplies arrive in Sudan's Darfur after months but millions face acute hunger

Apr. 05, 2024 14:49 PM EDT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The United Nations said Friday it has begun distributing food in Sudan’s restive western Darfur region for the first time in months, following two successful cross-border deliveries in March, but the population still faces widespread hunger unless more help arrives. ...

Extreme drought in southern Africa leaves millions hungry

Mar. 31, 2024 03:32 AM EDT

MANGWE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Delicately and with intense concentration, Zanyiwe Ncube poured her small share of precious golden cooking oil into a plastic bottle at a food aid distribution site deep in rural Zimbabwe. “I don't want to lose a single drop,” she said. ...

Malawi follows Zambia in declaring drought disaster as El Niño brings hunger to southern Africa

Mar. 25, 2024 02:41 AM EDT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The southern African nation of Malawi has declared a state of disaster over drought in 23 of its 28 districts and the president says it urgently needs more than $200 million in humanitarian assistance, less than a month after neighboring Zambia also appealed for...

UN seeks $4B for aid in Syria as civilians face growing humanitarian crisis

Mar. 22, 2024 11:50 AM EDT

BEIRUT (AP) — A U.N. humanitarian official appealed Friday for more than $4 billion in life-saving aid for more than 10 million Syrians, saying that the country's largely forgotten crisis remains “one of the most deadly to civilians in the world.” Adam Abdelmoula, resident...

Hunger soars and aid dwindles as gangs in Haiti suffocate the country

Mar. 16, 2024 15:30 PM EDT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A crowd of about 100 people tried to shove through a metal gate in Haiti’s capital as a guard with a baton pushed them back, threatening to hit them. Undeterred, children and adults alike, some of them carrying babies, kept elbowing each other trying to enter. ...

4 million people face 'acute food insecurity' in troubled Haiti, says UN food agency official

Mar. 12, 2024 21:54 PM EDT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Four million people face “acute food insecurity” and one million of them are one step away from famine, the U.N. food agency’s director in the conflict-wracked Caribbean nation said Tuesday. Jean-Martin Bauer told a virtual press conference that he’s...

Sudan’s conflict risks creating the world's largest hunger crisis, the top UN food official warns

Mar. 06, 2024 08:48 AM EST

CAIRO (AP) — A ruinous conflict raging for about a year between rival generals in Sudan risks creating the world’s largest hunger crisis, the top U.N. food official warned Wednesday as global attention has been focused on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Cindy McCain, head of the...

Fresh from a deadly cholera outbreak, Zambia declares drought a national emergency

Feb. 29, 2024 13:18 PM EST

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema Thursday declared the country’s debilitating drought a national disaster and emergency, saying it has devastated food production and electricity generation as the nation battles to recover from a recent deadly cholera outbreak. ...

Food deliveries into northern Gaza are halted because of the war's chaos, increasing famine risk

Feb. 20, 2024 23:28 PM EST

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The World Food Program said Tuesday it has paused deliveries of food to isolated northern Gaza because of increasing chaos across the territory, hiking fears of potential starvation. A study by the U.N. children’s agency warned that one in six children in the north are...