BLEAKEST MALNUTRITION SITUATION IN SOMALIA IN YEARS - WFP & UNICEF NAIROBI - Recent outbreaks of fighting and the worst drought in a decade have pushed many people in Somalia to their limit, creating the bleakest malnutrition situation in years, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today.
MASSIVE AID EFFORT CONTAINS GROWTH OF MALNUTRITION IN DARFUR KHARTOUM – Despite the deteriorating security situation in Darfur, a new United Nations assessment has found that overall malnutrition levels have mostly stabilized in 2006 and food insecurity has improved slightly thanks to a stronger international response to the suffering in Sudan’s war-torn west.
HARVEST PROSPECTS FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA PROMISING BUT LONG-TERM PROBLEMS PERSIST JOHANNESBURG – James T. Morris, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, said on Thursday that southern Africa may be on the cusp of better harvests but the underlying causes of the region’s four-year crisis still remain and must be addressed.
TANZANIA: URGENT FOOD AID NEEDED FOR HALF A MILLION HIT BY DROUGHT DAR ES SALAAM – The United Nations World Food Programme today urgently appealed for US$16.6 million to feed 565,000 people in Tanzania facing severe hunger because of drought.
WFP CONCLUDES OPERATION IN LEBANON BEIRUT – The United Nations World Food Programme today concluded a three-month successful operation in Lebanon to provide food assistance to over 810,000 Lebanese who were affected by the bombardment of Lebanon during this summer’s Middle East crisis.
UN AGENCY HEADS URGE PRESIDENT KIBAKI TO PREPARE FOR WORSENING DROUGHT AND PLEDGE CONTINUING SUPPORT FOR DROUGHT AFFECTED CHILDREN AND FAMILIES Nairobi 2 March 2006 The Executive Directors of the World Food Programme and UNICEF, James T. Morris and Ann M. Veneman, will meet Kenya President Mwai Kibaki today to urge an even stronger focus on the catastrophic impact of the deepening drought.