São Paulo – Saudi Arabia donated US$ 104 million to the World Food Programme (WFP) to help conflict refugees from Syria, South Sudan and Somalia. The money will be used for food safety.
According to WFP, from the total donated by Saudi Arabia, US$ 52 million will be used in the care of 1.7 million Syrian refugees that left the Arab country in search of shelter in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt. According to WFP’s release, the money comes in a moment that the Syrian refugees were without food because the food supply had been cut off.
In a statement released this Wednesday (10) by WFP, the organization’s executive director, Ertharin Cousin, said that “the funds will be immediatelly used to help people facing hunger and an uncertain future”.
Another US$ 42 million will be going to refugees in Ethiopia. The African country currently shelters approximately 650 thousand people, with 215 thousand being from South Sudan. The remaining US$ 10 million will go to 500 thousand that sought shelter in Kenya. The majority of this group consists of Somalis sheltered at the Dadaab and Kakuma camps.
Cousin said in the statement that WFP “is extremely grateful for this help, which comes in a crucial moment for these refugees, who left behind them protracted conflicts”.
Other donations
Also this Wednesday, WFP announced that until this day the organization received US$ 88.4 million in donations for the 1.7 million Syrian refugees. The US$ 52 million from Saudi Arabia is already accounted for in this figure, as well as the US$ 138 thousand from Belgium, US$ 6.2 million from the European Union, US$ 7.5 million from Holand, US$ 5.4 million from Germany, US$ 1.1 million from Ireland, US$ 10.2 million from Norway, US$ 2 million from Qatar, US$ 2.1 million from Switzerland and US$ 1.8 million from private donors.
Cousin said that with these donations, the Syrian refugees in the five host countries will be able to buy food again beginning next week.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
