United Nations, June 11 (IANS) With the reopening of the Rafah crossing, UN humanitarians said medical evacuations of people seeking treatment outside Gaza are now ready to resume.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border reopened for a limited number of people travelling in both directions after a two-day closure imposed by the Israeli authorities. Assistance was also offered to people returning to the Gaza Strip.The Kerem S…
Latest World Food Programme News & Updates
United Nations, June 4 (IANS) Some 24 million people across the Sahel region need humanitarian assistance, a UN spokesperson has said.Speaking to reporters at a daily briefing on Wednesday (local time), Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said this year’s Humanitarian Needs and Response Overview warns that the crisis is deepening across Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, northern Cameroon and northeast Nigeria.Violence continues to spread across the region, with armed gro…
Washington, June 3 (IANS) The United States has expanded its response to the Ebola outbreak in Central and East Africa, announcing more than $162 million in assistance and a series of measures aimed at containing the disease while preventing its spread to the United States.In an update issued on Wednesday, the US State Department said it was working closely with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as the governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and U…
Washington, May 28 (IANS) The United States has mobilised more than $112 million in bilateral foreign assistance in less than two weeks to combat the fast-spreading Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, the State Department said on Thursday.The announcement came as US health officials warned that the outbreak remained “rapidly evolving and fluid”, while insisting that the current risk to the United States remained low.The State Department said it had finali…
United Nations, May 16 (IANS) UN relief agencies have called for an urgent scale-up of life-saving assistance to stave off a rapidly intensifying, critical food insecurity emergency in Somalia. The Food and Agriculture Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Children’s Fund and the World Food Programme issued the plea, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on Friday (local time).Haq said that, according to the…
Cape Town, April 19 (IANS) In recent weeks, India has sent 1,000 metric tonnes of rice to drought-stricken Malawi, 1,000 metric tonnes to Burkina Faso, and 500 metric tonnes plus relief supplies, including tents, hygiene kits, and medicines to Mozambique, but will its sole efforts solve the issue, an article in a South African news outlet asked.India’s shipments alone cannot reverse the food crisis in Africa, the South Africa-based Independent Online (IOL) said in a report.However, India’s ges…
New Delhi, April 10 (IANS) The government has allowed exports of basmati and non-basmati rice to certain European countries without the mandatory certificate of inspection for a period of six months, according to an official notification issued on Friday.The requirement for an inspection certificate, issued by the export inspection agency, will continue to apply only to European Union member states, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. All other European countries …
Kabul, March 7 (IANS) The World Food Programme (WFP) has raised alarm over Afghanistan’s hunger crisis, warning that millions are facing acute food insecurity amid the escalating border conflicts with Pakistan. The agency stated that without sufficient funding, it may also struggle to provide aid to refugees fleeing Iran and Pakistan, as well as those internally displaced due to conflict along the border.“Afghanistan remains one of the world’s most severe hunger crisis, with one in three A…
Kabul, March 4 (IANS) Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, on Wednesday echoed concerns raised by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) over the intensifying clashes along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border that have resulted in heavy civilian casualties and displacement. He called on both parties to exercise maximum restraint and adhere to International Human Rights Law (IHRL) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL), …
United Nations, Feb 26 (IANS) Some 6.5 million people, or about a third of Somalia’s population, will face crisis levels of hunger through March, an increase of 1.7 million since January, UN officials warned. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday at the UN headquarters via video link, World Food Programme (WFP) Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response Ross Smith said the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report for Somalia, released on Tuesday, confirmed fears that t…