Brussels, 24/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 24 July, the European Commission decided to increase its food aid to the people of South Sudan by €14 million. Two major contracts totalling this amount were signed the same day between the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department (ECHO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in order to enable the WFP to provide vital food aid to around 1.7 million people in distress, and to support the logistical efforts of channelling this aid in South Sudan - a country devastated by civil war (see EUROPE 11120).
A sum of €9 million will enable the WFP to distribute nearly six tonnes of food, as well as vouchers or cash to needy people so that they might buy food from local markets. Another sum of €5 million is intended to finance the transport of aid to the most vulnerable people in remote parts of the country.
“The world's youngest country is on the brink of a famine because of fighting and a failed harvest. The numbers of people affected are frightening: almost seven million people are at risk of hunger”, said European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva.
Ertharin Cousin, WFP Executive Director, stated that his organisation's efforts “including the deployment of rapid relief mobile teams into remote areas, organising barges to carry food along the Nile, as well as using airdrops, (…) provided vital support to more than 1.4 million people in June”.
Humanitarian funding from the EU and its member states for the people of South Sudan has reached €208.5 million since the start of the crisis last December. (AN)