US donates $16m to WFP operations in Uganda

The United States has donated 16 million U.S. dollars to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) operations in Uganda.
A statement by the U.S. embassy in Uganda said the money will enable the WFP to provide about eight-month food assistance to more than 440,000 people including over 130,000 South Sudanese refugees who have arrived in Uganda since December 2013.
"The contribution comes at a crucial time when the WFP has more beneficiaries to feed, with already stretched resources," said the WFP's acting country representative Michael Dunford.
"It will enable us to ensure refugees and food-insecure people in Karamoja have food at the most critical times of the year," he said.
The WFP currently provides food assistance to approximately 300, 000 refugees living in settlements throughout Uganda, as well as 155,000 people from extremely vulnerable households in northeastern Uganda, also known as Karamoja.
Leslie Reed, the U.S. Agency for International Development Uganda Mission Director said the donation is a combination of traditional in-kind food aid and local and regional procurement that "directly benefits local Ugandan farmers."