U.S. Government Contributes $180 Million To Help Prevent Famine In South Sudan
This new contribution will also help cover the costs of transporting food to remote areas where roads have been made unreachable by conflict and rain. Because of road access issues, WFP must use costly airdrops and airlifts to bring urgently needed food to these areas.
In the last four months, helicopters and specially equipped planes have completed more than 1,000 flight rotations, delivering food assistance to about 600,000 vulnerable people who could not be reached otherwise.
“Just two weeks ago, UNICEF Executive Director Tony Lake and I visited South Sudan; I witnessed first-hand the utter devastation. People displaced by the conflict are living in extremely difficult conditions.
WFP together with UNICEF and the entire humanitarian community are working around the clock to provide food and other lifesaving assistance. This timely contribution from the US will help ensure no victim of this senseless conflict goes hungry or malnourished,” said WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin.
In June alone, WFP reached 1.4 million people in South Sudan. The food and associated costs will come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust and will be made available to WFP through the U.S. Agency for International Development.
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For more information, contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Steve Taravella, WFP/Washington, Tel. +1 202 653 1149, Mob. +1 202 770 5993
Challiss McDonough, WFP/Nairobi, Tel. + 254 207 622 179, Mob. + 254 707 722 104
George Fominyen, WFP/Juba, Tel. +211 922 465 247
Emilia Casella, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39 06 6513 3854, Mob. +39 347 9450634
