UN Authority Figures

UN World Food Programme Executive Board: Sudan

Sudanese refugees have suffered from war and famine caused by the government's campaign of genocide in Darfur. (Getty Images, August 3, 2007)

Mission of the World Food Programme: "WFP will play its part as an active member of the United Nations system to bring the issue of hunger to the centre of the international agenda. In its dialogue with recipient governments and the aid cornmunity, WFP will advocate policies. strategies and operations that directly benefit the poor and hungry." (World Food Programme web-site, "Mission statement")

Sudan's Term of office: 2006-2013

Sudan's Record on the Right to Food:
"Violence in Birmaza, North Darfur in November between government forces, janjaweed and rebel groups killed more than 20 civilians, displaced an unknown number of persons, and destroyed six UN World Food Programme warehouses... The UN's International Commission of Inquiry in Darfur found in 2005 that 'rape or other forms of sexual violence committed by the janjaweed and government soldiers in Darfur was widespread and systematic.' This trend continued during the year. The majority of victims were women and girls who lived in IDP camps and were raped when they left their camps to gather firewood, water, or food... Rape victims were almost always beaten, threatened with death, and subjected to racial epithets during attacks. In some cases attackers killed their victims...Hundreds of thousands of persons, largely southerners and westerners displaced by famine and civil war, continued to live in squatter slums around Khartoum." (US State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2006, Sudan)