WFP chief seeks million from donors, billionaires for food

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — The head of the World Food Program says that winning the Nobel Peace Prize while he was visiting the impoverished and war-weakened Sahel was a message to the world that it should not forget the region.

WFP Executive Director David Beasley spoke to reporters during a short stop in Burkina Faso Friday, shortly after the agency won the Peace Prize for fighting hunger. He said: “The fact that I was in the Sahel when we received the announcement is really a message from above that, hey world with all the things going on around the world today please don’t forget about the people in the Sahel!”

Even before COVID-19 became an issue, Beasley was warning global leaders that the world would face the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II in 2020. He said that was because of wars in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere, locust swarms in Africa, frequent natural disasters, and economic crises including in Lebanon, Congo, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Then came COVID-19 which quickly became a pandemic that has swept the world, escalating the need for food.

WFP, which won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, has averted famine but Beasley says it needs millions.