NAIROBI, Kenya, July 2 (NNN-KBC) – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is seeking to spend 10.2 billion Kenyan shillings (100 million U.S. dollars) for food relief for refugees hosted in Kenya, officials said.
Antonio Salort-pons, head of government and private sector partnerships at WFP Kenya Country Office, said in Nairobi, their target is to provide humanitarian relief to approximately 420,000 refugees in the country.
“Our funding is geared towards improving the livelihoods and nutritional status of refugees in Kenya,” Salort-pons said, adding that, Kenya’s legislation does not allow refugees to work and therefore often require humanitarian assistance.
WFP gets its funding from a number of European countries, as well as, China. In 2017 China gave a donation of five million dollars to the WFP, to extend food assistance to refugees in Kenya.
The UN agency has also earmarked another 100 million dollars, to build the resilience of communities in Kenya’s arid-and-semi-arid areas (ASALs), according to the UN official.
Salort-pons said that ASALs areas, especially in the north-eastern region are host communities of refugees and therefore also require assistance.– NNN-KBC
