WFP, Swiss donors visit West Darfur camps

The Swiss Ambassador to Sudan, Martin Strub, and UN Word Food Programme (WFP) Sudan Country Director, Adnan Khan, visited selected project sites in the El Geneina camps for the displaced in West Darfur on Wednesday.

The visit follows the announcement carried by Radio Dabanga on Monday, that Switzerland has contributed a grant and in-kind donations worth $2.4 million to the WFP, to support the programme's early recovery and safety-net activities aimed at improving household food security across Sudan.

The contribution is split into a cash grant of $1.5 million and an in-kind donation of dried skimmed milk, valued at $933,489. WFP will use the funds to buy nearly 300 metric tons of special nutritional products in order to treat and prevent acute malnutrition. The programme expects this quantity to be enough to cover the needs of more than 33,000 pregnant and nursing mothers and children younger than five years, for three months.

The 250 metric tons of dried skimmed milk will complement the regular hot meals provided to children through WFP’s school feeding projects in North, South and West Kordofan states which benefit some 175,000 school children.

WFP Country Director Adnan Khan talking to a trader and a displaced woman at a commodity vouchers distribution site in Ardamata Camp in El Geneina, West Darfur (WFP/Gabriela Vivacqua)

Shop assistants at a commodity vouchers distribution point at Ardamata Camp in El Geneina, West Darfur. (WFP / Gabriela Vivacqua)

Swiss Ambassador Martin Strub with WFP Country Director Adnan Khan visit a West Darfur nutrition centre which provides special nutritional products aimed at treating and preventing acute malnutrition that often follows shocks and protracted displacement. (WFP / Gabriela Vivacqua)