A recap of Wednesday's top stories: UN food agency partnership to feed millions of hungry children; Solidarity conference for 4.5 million Venezuelans on the move; new panel to aid internally displaced persons; healthy working conditions still not universal - UN rights expert; Environment Programme to help endangered snow leopard.
A recap of Tuesday’s main stories: Syria's northeast sees 180,000 displaced two weeks into fighting; funding shortfalls puts millions of young lives on the line; assistance breakthrough for Yemeni's; UN health agency urges ban on lead paint; Libyan child deaths in Tripoli attack.
With initial assessments indicating that some 76,000 people in the parts of the Bahamas worst-affected by Hurricane Dorian need urgent support, the World Food Programme (WFP) is arranging for eight tons of ready-to-eat meals to be provided – part of a $5.4 million overall funding package.
Somali drought "tragedy continues to unfold"
The humanitarian crisis faced by South Sudan’s people “is one of the greatest tragedies of our time”.
That’s according to Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, speaking in Geneva on Monday.
Along with World Food Programme chief David Beasley, Mr Grandi called for donors to step up support for refugees fleeing South Sudan, as violence grips the nation.
Daniel Johnson has more.
Duration: 2'04"
The new Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) has been hearing for himself “heart-breaking stories” of loss and need in conflict-affected Syria.
David Beasley, a former governor of the US state of South Carolina, has just finished a three-day visit to the war-torn country, as well as Lebanon, which is hosting more than one million refugees from neighbouring Syria.
“Immediate and flexible resources” are need to help nearly 19 million people in Yemen, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
WFP Country Director, Stephen Anderson, was speaking ahead of High-Level pledging conference on 25 April, which hopes to provide emergency resources to alleviate Yemen’s humanitarian crisis.
The event is being organized by the UN together with the governments of Sweden and Switzerland in Geneva.
While humanitarian support has saved “countless” lives, ongoing fighting in South Sudan continues to make difficult the rollout of aid programmes, according to the Regional Director for Eastern and Central Africa at the World Food Programme (WFP).
Valerie Guarnieri made the remarks on Tuesday during a joint press briefing with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on the escalating hunger crisis in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan.
Further conflict in Iraq or a rise in food prices risks pushing more than half of the country’s families into food insecurity, the UN said on Monday.
In its joint report with the Iraqi authorities, the World Food Programme (WFP) warns that well over two in three children under 15 are working to earn money for food rather than going to school.
Since June 2014, more than three million Iraqis have been displaced and they are twice as likely to succumb to a food crisis, as WFP’s Dina El-Kassaby explains to Daniel Johnson.
