The United States has announced 533 million dollar in humanitarian assistance for African nations facing life-threatening food insecurity and malnutrition.
The US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson announced the grant on Wednesday
The grant would support safe drinking water programs, emergency healthcare and hygiene programs to treat and prevent the spread of disease, and reunification of families separated by conflict.
From this donation, South Sudan would allocated the highest amount of funds totaling to 184 million dollars for emergency food and nutrition assistance to help the nation’s vulnerable populations.
Ethiopia, Somalia, Nigeria and nations in the Lake Chad region, affected by ongoing conflicts or prolonged drought would also benefit.
According to a statement issued by the US State Department, a swift influx of assistance from the US government, along with that of other donors, is helping to improve humanitarian conditions in all of these African countries.
It noted that it was up to the leaders in these countries, particularly in South Sudan, to stop the violence and put the welfare of their citizens at the forefront of their actions”.
The US government had also reiterated calls to all warring sides in South Sudan to allow aid workers safe and unhindered access to civilians in need.
More than 7 million people in South Sudan risk facing severe food insecurity in the coming months without sustained humanitarian assistance and access, three UN agencies said in a report last week.
Last month, 5.3 million people were already struggling to find enough food each day and were in “crisis” or “emergency” levels of food insecurity (IPC Phases 3 and 4), according to an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report that was recently unveiled.
Jointly issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP), the new report warned that progress made to prevent people from dying of hunger could be undone, and more people could be pushed into severe hunger and famine-like conditions from May-July if assistance and access are not made.
