50 million are food insecure in Middle East, parts of Africa & Europe - WFP presser | United Nations

Press conference by Corinne Fleischer, Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, at the World Food Programme (WFP) briefs reporters on her visit to Ukraine and Gaza.
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Corinne Fleischer, Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, at the World Food Programme (WFP) said that the increased incidence of violence against humanitarian workers in Gaza is “choking our efforts to prevent famine.”

Addressing the press today (10 Sep) after her recent visits to Gaza and Ukraine, Fleischer said, “Today, in what WFP calls the ‘Middle East, Northern Africa and Eastern Europe region,’ the countries that we cover there, close to 50 million people are food insecure. This is double from before the Arab Spring, and now WFP has to feed 6 times more people than before the Arab Spring. And now, of course, on top of this, we're bracing for a regional war, and this has to stop, because families really can't cope.”

She also said, “Every month, WFP reaches over a million people in Gaza and also in the West Bank with food assistance, with bread and with nutrition interventions. But beyond that, we use every emergency dollar that we invest in this operation to also help restore where possible private sector supply chains. So, we do that through the support to bakeries. Bakeries actually have started operating again in Gaza because of the support we provide them.”

She continued, “In the last month since I left, we've seen more evacuation orders and the massive deterioration of the security environment for humanitarian stuff. So, WFP lost access to its third warehouse and last operational warehouse in Gaza, in the middle area under evacuation order. We lost five WFP supported kitchens, community kitchens that had to be evacuated, and we lost close to 20 distribution points across the Strip.”

She stressed, “So, this increased incidence of violence that you were talking about before, against humanitarian workers are choking our efforts to prevent famine in Gaza, when you know half a million people are in catastrophic and famine-like conditions.”

WFP left Ukraine in 2018, said Fleischer, and “We had to come back because of the war. But from the onset now, we reach about 2 million people, mainly at the frontlines, with cash and with food, but also, again, we invest, every dollar to strengthen local capacities, so that we can leave again when the time is right, but, unfortunately, right now, this doesn't look like it.”