Statement by WFP about incorrect reports on food stocks in Mogadishu

WFP is very concerned about the incorrect and damaging perception generated by inaccurate television reports regarding food stocks in Mogadishu warehouses allegedly not being distributed.

WFP is currently feeding 1.5 million people in Somalia, including more than 300,000 people in Mogadishu this month alone. Every day, at least 85,000 people get hot meals in feeding centers supported by WFP around the Somali capital.

Most of the food shown in the television https://cdn.standardmedia.co.ke/images -alleged not to have been distributed for months - arrived in the last couple of weeks (between 5 and 17 July).

For months WFP has faced a serious shortage of food, not near enough to feed the growing numbers of hungry, despite urgent appeals. Indeed there was a temporary reduction in distributions in June because our severe funding shortage meant that we would run out of food in Mogadishu by August if we kept distributions at the normal rate.

As a result, we were forced to stretch the food supplies that arrived in April, giving our dwindling stocks to the most desperate and vulnerable people and children. We had no shipments of food to Mogadishu between April and 4 July.

WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency worldwide, with a proven track record of feeding those hardest hit. Each year we feed more than 100 million people who are not in the lens of the television cameras. They are not starving thanks to our work.

We also work in the most dangerous parts of the world. Fourteen of our relief staff were killed in Somalia alone these last two years.  

www.wfp.org