USAID donates $164 million in food for Sudan

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has donated food worth $164 million to the Sudanese people. On Sunday, a ship carrying 47,250 metric tons of sorghum arrived at Port Sudan. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) Sudan welcomed the arrival of the ship carrying “enough food to feed 1.7 million people for three months”. The food will be used particularly in the conflict-affected region of Darfur, where WFP is assisting more than three million people, including some 300,000 newly displaced by fighting in recent months, WFP Sudan said in a press release issued today. The sorghum represents the bulk of a US$164 million contribution committed by USAID to WFP Sudan for 2014. Of this, US$92.5 million was released in July 2013, enabling WFP to respond to a new wave of displacement in Darfur as well as pre-position food in remote locations in South Kordofan and White Nile States ahead of the rainy season.  Altogether the US contributions consisted of 145,000 metric tons of sorghum, 12,510 metric tons of yellow split peas and 4,400 metric tons of vegetable oil.  The total contribution comprises 43 percent of WFP Sudan’s annual requirements for 2014.  Sudan remains one of WFP’s largest and most complex operations. In 2014, WFP plans to reach 4.1 million people across Sudan, of whom 3.1 million are in Darfur. Since February this year the new wave of violence in Darfur displaced over 300,000 people and racketed up needs in the region. In addition, the continuing conflict in neighbouring South Sudan has forced thousands of South Sudanese to flee their homes, and seek temporary refuge in Sudan.  File photo: A woman shows her WFP food ration card in Kassab camp for the displaced in North Darfur (Albert González Farran/Unamid) Related: Newly displaced in North Darfur’s Zamzam camp in urgent need of aid (27 April 2014)Non-food relief to be distributed among North Darfur’s displaced (24 April 2014)