WFP Follows Frontlines Providing Food To Families Affected By Mosul Offensive
ERBIL – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) continues to follow frontlines in Mosul by delivering life-saving food assistance to families in camps and newly retaken areas.
“Access to civilians in the recaptured areas is increasingly challenging, particularly where fighting is on-going,” said Sally Haydock, WFP Country Director in Iraq. “We are doing everything we can to make sure we reach every person affected by the events in Mosul no matter where they are, as they continue to endure unthinkable hardship,” she added.
• Since the onset of the Mosul offensive in October, WFP and its partners have provided ready-to-eat food to more than 196,000 people affected by the conflict. This includes families at screening centers, people who have been displaced to newly established camps or those who have chosen to remain in their homes inside the retaken areas. Ready-to-eat food is provided to those who lack access to cooking facilities.
• WFP distributes monthly food rations once people are settled in camps or have access to cooking facilities. Monthly food rations are also provided to families who are able to remain in their homes but still require food assistance. Each food package provides a family of five with a one-month supply of staple foods including rice, chickpeas, wheat flour, sugar, salt and cooking oil. To date, WFP has reached over 137,000 people with monthly food supplies.
• Thanks to generous donor support, WFP has enough stocks of ready-to-eat food for families affected by ongoing fighting in Mosul and enough food rations to assist one million people for three months.
• Once access to a newly retaken area is permitted, food security assessments are conducted to ensure the best form of assistance is provided to those in need. In a recent assessment conducted among 114 families in a recaptured village to the east of Mosul city, families reported lack of employment and a rise in food prices as their main concerns. As a result of the assessment, 5,000 families received immediate ready-to-eat food assistance. The assessment highlighted the need to establish future livelihood activities and employment generation schemes.
• Led by WFP, the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster in Iraq is providing lifesaving radio and Internet connectivity services to humanitarian responders in Qayyarah, south of Mosul. These services help to ensure the safety and security of staff and allow humanitarians to work and access vital information, enabling them to provide the best support possible to thousands of people fleeing to Qayyarah from Mosul.
• Through the Logistics Cluster, WFP leads and coordinates preparedness and planning, seeks storage solutions for food and humanitarian supplies and works to overcome challenges for restriction of movement in hard-to-reach areas across Iraq. These efforts result in improved responsiveness of humanitarian actors to meet the needs of people affected by the crisis.
• More than 3.1 million Iraqis have been displaced by conflict since June 2014. In coordination with the Iraqi government, WFP reached 1.2 million of the most vulnerable displaced Iraqis in all 18 governorates through its cash assistance program and monthly family rations in October 2016.
• Within WFP’s regional emergency operation to assist those who have fled the Syrian conflict, WFP supports more than 50,000 vulnerable Syrian refugees in Iraq who cannot meet their food needs. As part of this support, WFP provides food SCOPE cards, which offer families the choice to decide what they buy and eat.
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WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.
For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
IngerMarie Vennize, WFP/ Iraq, Tel. +964 780 915 0937
Abeer Etefa, WFP/Cairo, Tel. +2010 66634352
Dana Sacchetti, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39 06 6513 3234, Mob. +39 349 980 0442
Bettina Luescher, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41 22 917 8564, Mob. +41 79 842 8057
Gerald Bourke, WFP/New York, Tel. +1 646 5566909, Mob. +1 646 525 9982
Steve Taravella, WFP/Washington DC, Tel. +1 202 6531149, Mob. +1 202 7705993
