Ireland has provided €20 million in humanitarian assistance to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), Agriculture Minister Michael Creed said yesterday.

Government had prohibited help for opposition-held Daraya.

Government forces and allies launch major offensive on Aleppo.

Appeal for cThe UN’s food agency is cutting back on assistance to thousands of Syrian refugees after an appeal for a ceasefire to enable Syrians feed themselves went unheeded, World Food Programme (WFP) executive director Ertharin Cousin said.easefire so Syrians could feed selves went unheeded

The UN World Food Programme has suspended a food voucher programme serving more than 1.7 million Syrian refugees, citing a funding crisis after many donors failed to meet their commitments.

The World Health Organisation says the number of people believed to have Ebola has risen above 10,000.

About one million Syrians are going short of food, most of them in conflict zones, due to government restrictions on aid distribution, the UN said.

THE UN World Food Programme has insisted it will not reduce emergency aid shipments to Somalia despite allegations of fraud, saying that although such complaints are frequent it does not believe there have been big losses.

THOUSANDS of sacks of food aid meant for Somalia’s famine victims have been stolen and are being sold openly, depriving those who have flooded into the country’s capital of urgently needed supplies, an investigation has found.

Thousands of sacks of food aid meant for Somalia’s famine victims have been stolen and are being sold openly, depriving those who have flooded into the country’s capital of urgently needed supplies, an investigation has found.

THE United Nations Human Rights Council should accept responsibility, on behalf of the world forum, for the famine spreading through eastern Africa, and should call for member countries’ cooperation to overcome the desperate food crisis there, experts said.

At least 10 Somalis, among them refugees, were killed during a firefight that broke out in Mogadishu when troops and residents looted truckloads of food meant for famine victims, two witnesses said.

Somali government troops have opened fire on hungry civilians, killing at least seven people, as both groups made a grab for food at a UN distribution site, witnesses said.

EMERGENCY food centres in drought-stricken eastern Africa are overwhelmed by thousands of starving people every day and mothers are forced to abandon their dead or dying children by the roadside, aid officials said.

AUSTRALIA urged the international community yesterday to rally behind the UN relief effort in the famine-struck Horn of Africa or risk hundreds of thousands of people starving to death.

Al Qaida-linked militants in Somalia vowed to keep most international aid workers away despite a worsening famine, as the United Nations warned that 800,000 children could die from starvation.

ISLAMIST rebels in Somalia — who control the parts of the country where famine was declared this week — have said aid agencies they expelled from those areas last year cannot return, reversing a previous pledge.

An al-Qaida-linked militant group has said it will not allow banned aid organisations to return to southern Somalia, meaning only a handful of agencies will be able to respond to the worsening famine.

Tens of thousands of Somalis are feared dead in the world's worst famine in a generation, the United Nations said.

The head of the United Nations refugee agency said drought-ridden Somalia was the “worst humanitarian disaster” in the world.

Libya will suffer a large-scale food crisis within two months unless stocks are replenished and distribution networks are supported, the UN says.

AN Irish soldier has been deployed to Haiti as part of a major UN mission to help the stricken nation prepare for the impact of the hurricane.

Drought-stricken Niger has been struck by devastating flooding, aid agencies said today.

Niger is facing the worst hunger crisis in its history, with almost half the country’s population in desperate need of food and up to one in six children suffering from acute malnutrition, aid officials said today.

DESPERATE survivors crushed into relief centres yesterday after Pakistan’s worst floods in living memory as officials feared a food crisis could compound the humanitarian disaster.

A recruitment drive was launched today for skilled volunteers who want to be deployed to humanitarian emergencies around the world.

Desperate parents in a struggling village perched above Haiti’s earthquake-flattened capital said they gave their children willingly to a group of US missionaries to take them to a better life.

UN officials said they are still far short of reaching all of the Haiti earthquake victims estimated to need food.

A second earthquake hit Haiti today shaking buildings and sending frightened people running into the streets.

US MILITARY helicopters swooped down on Haiti’s wrecked presidential palace to deploy troops and supplies yesterday as a huge international relief operation to earthquake survivors gained momentum.

The staggering scope of Haiti’s nightmare came into sharper focus today as rescuers estimated 200,000 dead and 1.5 million homeless in the quake-ravaged country.

The United Nations will hold an urgent vote today to send 2,000 more troops and 1,500 extra police to protect Haiti’s aid convoys from lawless gangs roaming the quake-hit streets.

TWO of the world’s greatest footballers — Zinedine Zidane and Kaka — will take part in a match to support relief efforts in Haiti.

Prayers of thanksgiving and cries for help rose from Haiti's huddled homeless, the sixth day of an epic humanitarian crisis that was straining the world's ability to respond and igniting flare-ups of violence amid the rubble of Port-au-Prince.

Worried aid workers in Haiti today called for more security amid fears of attacks by increasingly desperate earthquake survivors.

United Nations aid workers in Pakistan still fear terrorist attacks, despite being given increased security following a suicide raid that killed five of them.

A SUICIDE bomber disguised as a security officer struck the lobby of the UN food agency’s Pakistan headquarters yesterday, killing five people a day after the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban vowed fresh assaults, authorities and witnesses said.

A suicide bomber disguised as a security officer blew up the UN food agency’s Pakistan headquarters killing five people today.

Six people were injured in an explosion inside the offices of the UN World Food Programme in the Pakistani capital today, police and witnesses said.

A United Nations team visited Pakistan’s battle-scarred Swat Valley today as hundreds of refugees made their way back to the troubled area.