
A group of young South Sudanese seen sitting in front of the World Food Program and Unicef logo. The Kuluba refugee reception center is one of many reception centers in northern Uganda specially built to handle the hundreds of thousand of South Sudanese refugees influx. The reception center is where refugees are being registered by the UNHCR as refugees officially and they are only going to be staying here for 24-48 hours before being transferred to more permanent refugee settlements, Kuluba, Uganda, 2018. Photo Credit: SOPA Images via Getty Images
Society“Life-Saving” Food Support for Over a Million People
$118 million has been secured to support over one million displaced people and refugees in seven eastern African countries.
The funding is “critical to ensur[ing] we can maintain support for these vulnerable displaced people, many of whom rely almost entirely on humanitarian assistance to survive,” says Laurent Bukera, the United Nation’s World Food Program’s (WFP) director for eastern Africa.
The World Food Program has reported that the number of displaced people requiring emergency food rations has doubled over the past four years, mainly due to conflict, economic upheaval, and extreme weather conditions. The United States Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance has funded the $118 million to support cash transfers or food assistance to refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, and other people in dire need. The aid is said to be “life-saving,” reaching millions of hungry people in seven countries: Burundi, Djibouti, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Republic of Congo. Though food insecurity and malnutrition remain critical issues, this funding will provide temporary relief for many families in East Africa.