São Paulo – The United States, Spain, New Zealand and other international donors have joined Brazil in sending an urgent food supply to Somalia. The information was disclosed this week by the permanent US mission to the UN Agencies in Rome. The Italian capital is home to agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
The US announced the donation of US$ 14.5 million in cash to the WFP through a triangular action aiming to fund the delivery of 65,000 tonnes of Brazilian agricultural commodities to the African nation. Brazil has committed to supplying up to 710,000 tonnes of food to the programme this year.
This type of trilateral action between Brazil, the US and the UN is provided for in a protocol of intentions signed by the two countries last March, when the United States president, Barack Obama, visited Brazil. The document mentions broader cooperation between the two nations to benefit third-party countries.
According to a statement issued by the US mission to Rome, this is the first time that the country takes part in a triangular action of this type. The diplomatic representation adds that the initiative comes at a time in which humanitarian conditions in Somalia are deteriorating due to a severe drought and the continuing instability in the African country.
The statement highlights cooperation in food security and assistance to development were the theme of a meeting between the Brazilian minister of Foreign Relations, Antonio Patriota, and the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in Washington, last week
Still according to the statement, the executive director of the WFP, Josette Sheeran, stated that “"This innovative partnership will save the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable in Somalia.”
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
