As Conflict In Mosul Intensifies, WFP Reaches Over 100,000 Iraqis With Food Assistance | WPN World People News

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has provided urgently-needed food assistance to more than 100,000 people fleeing the conflict in Mosul, including a distribution on Sunday to 25,000 people in Gogjali, the first neighbourhood retaken inside Mosul city. In addition to providing such assistance, WFP and its partners are working tirelessly to reach families that remain trapped in Mosul and newly recovered areas.

WFP strives to reach all those affected by the Mosul crisis.

While many people have sought safety in newly opened camps, thousands of families remain in their homes or are staying with nearby host communities. WFP is first providing ready-to-eat food rations to families wherever safe access is possible. WFP then provides family food rations giving a family of five a one-month supply of staple foods, including rice, wheat flour, chickpeas, vegetable oil, sugar and salt.

“We are providing food to people who need it regardless of whether they are in camps or have stayed in their homes or surrounding neighborhoods,” said Sally Haydock, WFP Country Director in Iraq. “People have had their lives uprooted – it is our duty to ensure that food is not an additional worry for them at this difficult time.”

Living conditions in many newly retaken areas have been very difficult for the past two years. Vulnerable families have struggled to afford food, or to access functioning local markets and medical services.

“WFP is concerned about the food security of people trapped inside Mosul and in areas surrounding the city. Together with our partners, we are monitoring frontlines and working to reach families in need as soon as there is safe access,” Haydock added.

WFP currently has enough stocks of immediate response rations outside Mosul to provide food for 2.1 million people for three days and almost half a million family food rations, which is enough for 2.5 million people for one month.

More than 3 million Iraqis have been displaced by conflict since mid-June 2014. In response, WFP has provided food assistance to more than 1 million vulnerable, displaced Iraqis across all 18 governorates.

Source: World Food Programme