Press Release

OPEC Fund delivers food aid to Burkina Faso
Director-General conducts official handover in Ouagadougou

115/2005 November 23, 2005, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
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Together with the World Food Program (WFP), the OPEC Fund for International Development today launched the distribution of emergency food rations to towns and villages in Burkina Faso affected by the current food crisis. In an official ceremony in the Burkinabe capital, Ouagadougou, the Director-General of the Fund, Mr. Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, and WFP Country Director, Ms. Annalisa Conté, handed over 300 tonnes of cereals to the Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture, Hydraulics and Fisheries, Mr. Kaboret Ibrahim.

In a brief statement, Mr. Ibrahim thanked the Fund and WFP for their combined efforts in providing famine relief to the citizens of his country. In response, Mr. Al-Herbish acknowledged the many difficulties confronting farmers in developing nations. “Too often, farmers are at the mercy of nature and other circumstances beyond their control,” he said. The OPEC Fund sympathized with these problems and was working to ease hardships wherever possible, he added. Mr. Al-Herbish assured the Secretary General that Burkina Faso would continue to enjoy the priority attention of the OPEC Fund for its development needs.

Like other countries in Africa’s Sahel region, Burkina Faso is currently battling the effects of drought and locust invasion. Failed harvests have left more than six million people facing food shortages across the region. In September 2005, the Fund approved a grant of US$1.2 million to purchase emergency supplies for affected communities in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

A delegation from the Fund, headed by Mr. Al-Herbish and including other senior officials, is currently in Burkina Faso on a four-day working visit to review collaborative strategies and visit project sites.