UN food agency approves $66 million aid operation for Central America

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today announced the approval of a new $66-million relief operation to assist hundreds of thousands of Central Americans hard-hit by recent droughts and crop failures.

“Food insecurity triggered by recurring natural disasters has placed families in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua in a crisis situation,” said Zoraida Mesa, WFP’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. “This crisis situation continues to prevent the poorest families from escaping poverty and hunger.”

WFP, which currently assists more than 1.5 million people in Central America, has been responding recently to nutritional crises in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua with emergency programmes for acutely malnourished children and their families. The new funding would be used to serve an additional 690,000 vulnerable people in the region.

The agency must now raise the $66 million through States and private contributors. “We are hopeful that traditional donors, non-traditional donors and the general public will be generous in helping us improve the food security of the poorest Central Americans,” Ms. Mesa said.