U.S. Pledges $45M in Food Aid for Africa
Thu Nov 24, 1:03 PM ET
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The United States has thrown a lifeline to six southern African countries, donating food aid valued at $45 million, the U.N. food agency said Thursday.
The 94,000-ton donation brings the U.S. government's total food contribution for the year to $150 million, the World Food Program said.
The latest U.S. donation includes beans, peas, lentils, maize meal, corn-soya blend, sorghum, millet, vegetable oil and bulgur wheat, expected to start arriving in the region in January. The food will be distributed across Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
WFP is struggling to feed nearly 10 million people in the region, hit by the fourth straight year of drought and some of the world's highest
HIV infection rates.
"It is wonderful to see such overwhelming support for the men, women and children of southern Africa daily contending with unimaginable hardships," WFP Executive Director James Morris said in the statement. "The United States is our strongest ally in the war on hunger."
Other major contributors include the
European Commission, which pledged $37 million, and Japan, which committed $15.4 million to this year's relief effort.
Even with the U.S. contribution, the WFP needs $102 million to feed 9.7 million people until the next harvest in April, the statement said. |
