KAMPALA –U.S. Mission Uganda has announced a donation of $12 million to the UN World Food Program (WFP) Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation in support of refugees in Uganda and the chronically food-insecure people in the Karamoja region.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide the funding to WFP on behalf of the American people. The contribution advances the U. S. Government’s food security initiative, Feed the Future, which aims to sustainably reduce hunger, poverty, and under-nutrition.
“This contribution emphasizes the U.S. Government’s commitment to address acute food and nutrition insecurity among both refugees and extremely vulnerable households in Uganda,” said U.S. Ambassador Scott DeLisi.
WFP Country Director Sory Ouane says the U.S. contribution will enable WFP to provide three months of food assistance to more than 330,000 people. “Refugees continue to arrive in Uganda, and urgently require food support,” said Ouane. “The United States’ donation will be particularly helpful in meeting the needs of the newly-arrived refugees who are in desperate need of support during that initial period. At the same time, there are certain households in the Karamoja region that are threatened by food insecurity and malnutrition.”
WFP currently provides food assistance to 145,000 refugees living in settlements throughout Uganda, as well as 148,000 people from extremely food-insecure households in Karamoja. The WFP food basket for these two groups consists of cereals, pulses, super cereal (a fortified corn-soya blend), vegetable oil, and salt.
The refugees, who come mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and Somalia, are based in settlements in western Uganda.
Extremely food-insecure households in Karamoja, which include homes headed by children, the elderly, and chronically ill people, need special support between March and October, when food is in particularly short supply.
For additional information, please contact:
Lydia Wamala, Public Information Officer, WFP
Tel: +256 312 242 000 Cell: +256 758 778 037
Email: lydia.wamala@wfp.org
Nanyonga Dorothy, Information Assistant, U.S. Mission Uganda
Tel: +256 414 306 410 Cell: +256 772 221 412, +256 784 846 334
Email: NanyongaDx@state.gov