Many of the families which fled southern Kyrgyzstan during the recent conflict, crossing the border into Uzbekistan, are now returning. WFP's Abeer Etefa met the members of one of these families as they began the journey from the border to the city of Osh. With their home destroyed and uncertain weeks ahead, WFP's assistance will be vital.

OSH  (26 June 2010) -- Early Friday morning we met a family returning from Uzbekistan. There was an old man, his wife, a grown-up son and daughter in law and five children. They were returning to their village at the foot of the hills on the south side of Osh. They fled across the border to Uzbekistan after the fighting began on June 11 and their homes were set on fire.

OSH (24 June 2010) – As barricades come down in the southern Kyrgyzstan city of Osh and refugees begin to return, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is intensifying efforts to bring food to residents whose lives have been shattered by ethnic conflict.

“There was nothing to buy. We have eaten everything in our homes and all we need now is food,” said one mother of four, a market trader, at a WFP food distribution in Dostuk today, an Uzbek neighbourhood where residents had barricaded themselves into their homes, fearful of violent clashes.  

WFP is accelerating the delivery of food assistance for families displaced by violence in Kyrgyzstan. At the same time, the agency is opening a humanitarian hub in the southern city of Osh to act as a staging post, receiving assistance for the whole humanitarian community.

BISHKEK (21 June 2010) – A planeload of aid arrived in the southern Kyrgyzstan city of Osh on Monday, bringing rations for over 30,000 people caught up in the recent violence as well as telecommunications equipment to support the humanitarian response to the crisis.

“With a huge number of people displaced by the conflict, and thousands more trapped without food, water or supplies, there’s not a moment to lose,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran, announcing that the flow of humanitarian aid to victims of the conflict in southern Kyrgyzstan would intensify this week.   

WFP has distributed food to thousands of people affected by the humanitarian crisis in Kyrgyzstan and is calling on all sides to allow the delivery of food and medical supplies.

BISHKEK (18 June 2010) – WFP has distributed a two-week ration of food to a group of 13,000 people in the southern city of Osh, the second largest city in Kyrgyzstan and epicentre of the fighting which broke out last week. With the help of local partners, WFP gave out 100 metric tons of wheat flour and three metric tons of oil to people trapped in their neighbourhoods by the violence.

“This crisis is unfolding rapidly and WFP is mobilizing its global expertise to ensure that the vulnerable –  particularly women and children – do not suffer,” said WFP’s Executive Director Josette Sheeran. “We implore all sides to ensure humanitarian access to the vulnerable, trapped by the crisis,” she said.   

WFP has launched an emergency operation to feed people affected by the humanitarian crisis in Kyrgyzstan, while calling on all sides to allow the delivery of food and medical supplies, particularly to the embattled city of Osh near the border with Uzbekistan.

BISHKEK (16 June 2010) – WFP has launched an emergency operation to feed people affected by the humanitarian crisis in Kyrgyzstan, while calling on all sides to allow the delivery of food and medical supplies, particularly to the embattled city of Osh, the second largest city in the country.

BISHKEK (15 June 2010) – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched an emergency operation to provide logistics and feed civilians caught in the humanitarian crisis in Kyrgyzstan, while calling on all sides to allow the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian supplies, particularly in the country’s second city, Osh.

“This crisis is unfolding rapidly and WFP is mobilizing its global expertise to ensure that the vulnerable --  particularly women and children -- do not suffer,” said WFP’s Executive Director Josette Sheeran. “We implore all sides to ensure humanitarian access to the vulnerable, trapped by the crisis,” she said.

WFP has begun working with local authorities to distribute food in Osh, where shops are reported to be running out of supplies and people have arrived at a WFP warehouse asking for food.      

BISHKEK (24 March 2010) -- The Bakashov family is still reeling from the 2008 financial crisis which left legions of expat workers from poor countries without jobs, putting them and their families on the knife-edge of hunger. WFP food assistance was the only thing that allowed the Bakashovs to get through this winter.

Talant Bakashov came home to his wife and three children in Kyrgyzstan in 2009, sharply divided between his happiness at being with his family again and despair over how they were going to keep their household afloat. 

ROME (18 March 2010) - The innovative school meals projects being run by the Russian government in a town north of Moscow will be the model for new WFP-coordinated programmes in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

During her recent visit to Russia, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran travelled to the historic town of Yaroslavl, 250 km northeast of Moscow, to see the school meals programmes being run by the government there. The projects have been designed with an eye to promoting sustainability and building links with local agriculture.

Rome (Italy) - As the number of hungry people shoots past record levels, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today called on the world to remember the more than one billion urgently hungry people with inadequate access to food.  

“World Food Day is actually ‘No Food Day’ for almost one out of every six people around the world this year,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran. “Let’s remember that more than one billion people won’t get enough nutritious food to eat today.  We can change this - so our challenge is to turn ‘No Food Day’ back into ‘World Food Day’ for the hundreds of millions without food on their table tonight.”

The flow of food aid is at its lowest level in twenty years, while the number of hungry people is growing, due to the combined impact of high food prices, the global financial crisis and increasingly severe weather patterns.