South Sudan on Tuesday said it has secured a grant amounting to $106 million from the World Bank and the African Development Bank to buy food and to fund the construction of a road to neighbouring Kenya.

In February, famine was officially declared in parts of the country where 100,000 people face catastrophic hunger and imminent risk of death.

South Sudan’s Finance Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau said in a message extended to Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday that the World Bank has allocated a $50 million grant to bridge the food gaps caused by the current economic crisis in South Sudan.

Dhieu said from America where he had been holding meetings to lobby for funds that the World Bank earmarked an amount of $8 million for the construction of a road connecting South Sudan’s capital to neighbouring Kenya.

The South Sudanese official pointed out that he also secured a loan amounting to $48 million from the African Development Bank to rescue the current economic situation in the country.