The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said it has received an additional €4 million contribution from Germany as overall humanitarian needs deepen in South Sudan with more than 7 million people requiring various kinds of support in 2019.
The contribution brings the total German contributions to WFP activities in South Sudan in 2018 to €27 million (US$30 million).
In a press release today, the UN agency said this new funding will be used to provide food and nutrition assistance to vulnerable people, including the displaced and children under the age of two across the country.
It added that the funding will also enable the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service to keep providing flights for the humanitarian community.
“Germany is committed to working together with WFP and other humanitarian agencies to help some of the most vulnerable people in South Sudan,” says Jan Hendrik van Thiel, Ambassador of Germany to South Sudan. "Alongside humanitarian assistance to South Sudan, Germany will continue to support recovery and resilience building activities that will help the country become a food secure nation in the long term.”
WFP provides various types of assistance in South Sudan – food assistance for people building or restoring community assets such as roads, emergency school meals to keep children in school and the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition among children and pregnant and nursing women.
“The contribution demonstrates the strong commitment from the people and Government of Germany to assist WFP in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable,” says Simon Cammelbeeck, WFP’s Acting Country Director in South Sudan. “It will allow us to preposition food ahead of the rainy season and deliver timely assistance to the people in need while giving the entire humanitarian community a reliable airlink across the country. “
In 2018, Germany was one of the top donors to WFP worldwide, contributing more than US$855 million to WFP operations globally.