Showing posts with label Goal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goal. Show all posts

Monday, January 04, 2010

Ireland announces additional funding of €600,000 to combat hunger in Sudan

The WFP’s emergency operation for 2010 will provide more than 650,000 tons of food to 6.4 million people in areas including Darfur and Southern Sudan.

Source: Ireland – Ministry of Foreign Affairs
January 4, 2010 via APO:
The Minister of State for Overseas Development, Peter Power, T.D., today announced additional funding of €600,000 for emergency food relief in Sudan.

The funding will be channelled through the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP), which is managing emergency food distribution across many of Sudan’s poorest and most vulnerable communities.

The WFP’s emergency operation for 2010 will provide more than 650,000 tons of food to 6.4 million people in areas including Darfur and Southern Sudan.

Announcing the funding, Minister Power said:

“We remain seriously concerned about the situation in Sudan. Sudanese people are among the most vulnerable in the world, as a result of the combination of conflict, large-scale population displacement and underlying hunger and poverty. The past year has seen a significant increase in emergency food requirements. This urgent need for assistance is expected to continue through 2010.

“Poor rainfall levels in Southern Sudan have caused crop failure and extended the ‘hunger gap’, leaving as many as 1.5 million people extremely vulnerable to food shortages. We know that as many as one in six people in this region are acutely malnourished and 130,000 people have been forced to leave their homes as a result of ongoing conflict.

“The World Food Programme’s operation in Sudan is the largest of its emergency operations worldwide. The WFP’s immediate goal is to reduce the unacceptably high number of people dying and the incidence of acute malnutrition. They are also committed to assisting displaced people to return to their homes and increasing access to education, particularly for girls.

“This comprehensive response will save the lives of thousands of men, women and children, reduce hunger and restore the livelihoods of those affected by conflict and food shortages. I am delighted that Ireland’s contribution will help the WFP to implement this vital work. By placing the fight against hunger at the heart of our overseas aid programme, Ireland has taken a leadership role internationally on reducing hunger.

“Through Irish Aid, the Government has already provided €4.5 million in emergency humanitarian support for Sudan this year, and we have allocated a further €5.6 million to aid agencies working with vulnerable communities in Sudan, including Concern and Goal. Our support for community based programmes which focus on areas such as primary healthcare, education and rural development, tackle the root causes of hunger and poverty and ultimately help build a more sustainable future for the people of Sudan,” Minister Power said.
Update on Tue 5 Jan from Sudan Watch Ed: Thanks to eagle eyed Sudan Radio Service (hi Charles!) I have amended the title of this entry. Ireland kindly provided the funding, not the UK. Apologies for lapse in concentration. Posting is light here lately, not feeling well enough, hope to catch up soon.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Kidnapped Darfur aid staff freed

Good news from the BBC, Sunday, 18 October 2009:
Kidnapped Darfur aid staff freed
Two aid workers who had been kidnapped in Sudan's Darfur region have been released by their captors, reports say.

Irish citizen Sharon Commins, 32, and her Ugandan colleague Hilda Kawuki, 42, were working for the Irish charity Goal when seized by gunmen in Kutum in July.

Ireland's Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin said he was "delighted and relieved" to hear the two volunteers had been freed.
The Sudanese government confirmed the pair were freed early Sunday morning.

Sudan's state Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Abdel Baqi al-Jailani, said: "They are free, they are in good health... [and] were released earlier this morning."

He stressed that "no ransom was paid," adding that local tribe leaders had put pressure on the kidnappers to release the workers.

Reports earlier in the year had suggested the kidnappers made a $2m ransom demand in return for their safe release.

The two women were taken hostage at gunpoint at an aid compound in Kutum on 3 July.