Bishkek (19 August 2010) - As part of a jointly run “Food for Work” project, by WFP and UNDP, the village of An-Aryk, in the oblast of Chuy, Northern Kyrgyzstan, today successfully completed the distribution of a 23 MT consignment of wheat flour and around 2 MT of vegetable oil.

The violence in Kyrgyzstan last month sparked an exodus of refugees into neighbouring Uzbekistan. But a smaller group of ethnic Kyrgyz fled in the opposite direction in fear of retaliation on the other side of the border. WFP is helping both communities cope in the aftermath.

OSH (07 July 2010) – At first glance, it’s like a summer camp; 15 tents set up in a shady garden with flower beds planted with cosmo and ox-eye daisies. Children are running around, seemingly without a care in the world. Only their mothers’ faces tell the real story.    

As tensions ease in southern Kyrgyzstan after the outburst of ethnic violence in June, refugees from the city of Osh have largely returned. Many, however, have little to come home to, as their houses and shops were destroyed in the fighting. WFP is helping them cope by making sure they have enough to eat.

OSH (02 July 2010) — Signs of life are returning to the southern Kyrgyzstan city of Osh, where clashes last month forced some 400,000 ethnic Uzbeks from their homes.

Now the barricades have come down, the markets reopened and the 75,000 refugees who fled across the border into neighbouring Uzbekistan have largely returned. However, life is far from normal for families who came back to find their shops looted and their homes burnt down.

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.