Africa To Receive Additional $592m Humanitarian Assistance From U.S

Posted by Eric Ojo Latest Headlines, U.S./Canada Saturday, July 16th, 2022

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The United States Government has announced more than $592 million in additional assistance to respond to humanitarian needs in Africa.

Throughout Africa, response efforts to address under-recognized humanitarian crises are facing dire funding constraints.

The intervention fund which will be supervised by the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), will enable the U.S. humanitarian partners to help the over seven million refugees and asylum seekers currently hosted across Africa as well the over 25 million internally displaced persons.

The assistance will provide lifesaving support to refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, stateless persons, forcibly displaced and persecuted people across Africa, including those affected by crises in the Horn, the Sahel, and other emergency situations

Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, Julieta Valls Noyes made the announcement on Friday in Kampala, Uganda.
Uganda remains the largest refugee host on the continent with more than 1.5 million refugees and asylum seekers. This announcement includes more than $82 million for humanitarian assistance in Uganda, including more than $61 million in humanitarian assistance from the State Department and $21 million from USAID.

The Department’s funding consists of more than $41 million to the United Nations Refugee Agency and nearly $20 million to other programs supporting essential services such as health, education, protection, and income-generating activities.

USAID’s $21 million will support general food assistance and comprehensive nutrition programming for refugees as well as complement ongoing food security support in the Karamoja sub-region of Uganda. Refugees and asylum seekers are particularly vulnerable to the food insecurity impacting much of the continent, especially in countries with a reliance on Russian and Ukrainian imports and a vulnerability to price shocks.

The American government said it is concerned by the diminished global attention to humanitarian crises in Africa, including in Uganda, where the growing number of new arrivals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan reached over 71,000 since the start of the year.

“We urge other donors to provide additional support to the growing humanitarian needs on the continent”, the U.S. government stressed.