SUDAN: WFP Welcomes SEK 26 million from the Swedish Government to support the PostHarvest Loss (PHL) Programme [EN/AR]

Khartoum – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Sudan has welcomed a contribution of SEK 26 million (US$ 2.3 Million) from the Swedish Government in support of WFP’s Post-Harvest Loss (PHL) Programme, which will be integrated with the Productive Safety Net (PSN), (a programme that received funding from the Swedish Government in 2019-2022). These funds will support advancing the capacity of over 34,000 smallholder farmers across the country through training on post-harvest handling methods and the use of hermetic storage equipment to increase food availability at the household level.

“In a year where more than a third of Sudanese people face various forms of food insecurity, any loss or waste in the food system is simply unacceptable. The contribution by the Swedish Government will go a long way in ensuring we are able to improve food security, reduce postharvest loss and help preserve greater quantity and better-quality food to meet the needs of the people of Sudan,” said Eddie Rowe, WFP’s Representative and Country Director in Sudan.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, over 30 percent of food — the equivalent of approximately US$4 billion — is lost annually in sub-Saharan Africa because of poor harvesting. Thanks to support from donors and partners, WFP is supporting smallholder farmers to acquire skills and knowledge on how to safely process and store their produce post-harvest. This includes equipping them with simple but effective hermetic storage equipment, and in collaboration with IFAD, providing them with fortified seeds to enhance production and promote market access. Since the start of the programme, participating farmers have been able to reduce post-harvest losses by up to 98%.

“We are pleased to continue our support to Sudanese smallholder farmers through our partner WFP. With the additional funds of 26 million Swedish kronor, WFP can further scale up the work to reduce Post Harvest Losses and increase food security in Sudan. Sweden values its strong partnership with WFP on these issues and we look forward to continued close cooperation.” H.E Ms. Signe Burgstaller, Ambassador of Sweden in Sudan.

The contribution from the Swedish government will be used to scale up ongoing training for farmers on preventing post-harvest losses, purchasing, and distributing an additional 104,550 hermetic bags and 17,425 manuals, and building warehouses in communities through the Productive Safety Nets (PSN) modality.

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

Source WFP 

36 foreigners arrested in Maputo

The Mozambican police announced on Monday the detention over the past week of 36 foreigners who attempted to enter the country via Maputo International Airport with forged entry visas. The group consisted of 16 Ethiopians, 11 Bangladeshis, four Pakistanis, three Nigerians and two Somalis. The group arrived on two scheduled flights, one of Kenya Airways and the other of Ethiopian Airlines. They will all be sent back to the cities they came from. The detection of false entry visas used by people travelling on these two airlines has become a regular occurrence at Maputo airport. Obviously some organized criminal outfit is selling forged visas to travelers, and those unsuspecting travellers are unaware that the equipment used by Mozambican immigration officials can detect false visas. Source: AIM

Mugabe alive and well,says his spokesman George Charamba

The Zimbabwean government has dismissed a false report by an
online publication, ZimEye,that President Mugabe collapsed and died while in thenFar East where he is on his annual leave. 

The website published thenstory under the headline:“Rumour rips CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation) thatnMugabe has collapsed”. Presidential spokesperson andnpermanent secretary in the Zimbabwean Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Mr George Charamba said the false rumours about President Mugabe’s alleged death had become a usual chorus everyJanuary whenever he is on his annual leave which is heavily criticized by Zimbabwean opposition parties.

 “You can doubt that there can be a New Year, but you cannot doubt that there will be a storybon the President’s alleged death every January,” he said. “This is the way the website seeks to improve its hits in order to get dirty money from Google.

 There is a financial incentive to the grim lie. “Government is exploring
mechanisms for dealing with such extra territorial mischief.
These websites ride on carriers,don’t they?” Some people picked the hoax
that first appeared on the ZimEye website and started circulating it on social media. The ZimEye website that is known for fabricating stories,published the story under the pretext of a letter to the editor by one of their readers. Online media reports yesterday claimed that a South African radio station also picked up thebfalse story and ran it before retracting it and apologising.