Off the wire
• Oil prices rise as supplies add lower-than-expected  • 1st LD Writethru: Gold rises slightly on worse-than-expected data  • Lab-grown vocal cord tissue may help treat voice disorders: study  • UN official stresses serious human rights challenges in Somalia  • Roundup: Hollande reiterates need to form "vast coalition" against IS despite existing divergence  • Iraqi attacked at reception center in Finland  • Thousands join vigil in Brussels district of Molenbeek for Paris attacks victims  • UNHCR launches campaign to protect Syrian refugees from harsh winter  • Over 4,000 Iraqis displaced by recent military operations: UN relief agency  • Belarus ready to boost cooperation with China's northwest regions: minister  
You are here: 　 Home

Thousands of patients, students in east Ukraine receive food aid: UN agency

Xinhua, November 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

The World Food Programme (WFP), together with a partner organization, on Wednesday started distributing food to some 7,000 patients in hospitals and students in schools in conflict-affected areas in Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, a UN spokesman said here.

"WFP says that the conflict has resulted in the shelling of residential areas, leading to the destruction of places such as hospitals and schools," Stephane Dujarric, the UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.

"By providing food to these institutions, WFP wants to ensure that vulnerable people have access to sufficient nutritious food to stay healthy," he said.

Under its ongoing emergency operation launched last November, WFP plans to provide assistance to 575,000 people by the end of 2015, said the spokesman.

In partnership with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), WFP has already provided food assistance to more than 250,000 of the most vulnerable people in Donetsk and Luhansk, he added.

Almost 8,000 people have been killed and around 17,800 others wounded since the conflict started in April 2014 in eastern Ukraine.

On Sept. 1, a comprehensive cease-fire was established in the restive areas, which brought fragile peace to the region. Endit