USAID has contributed US$6.5 million to the World Food Programme (WFP) in support of Congolese and Burundian refugees in Rwanda to empower WFP to buy locally produced maize grain, beans and fortified blended foods for malnourished children, as well as provide cash-based transfers.
WFP will distribute in-kind monthly rations to Burundian camp-based refugees and provide monthly cash-based transfers to refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which they can use to purchase food from local markets. It will enable WFP to meet the immediate needs of 75,000 Congolese and 55,000 Burundian refugees hosted in six camps in Rwanda over the coming months.
WFP Rwanda Representative and Country Director, Jean-Pierre de Margerie said, “We are incredibly thankful for the continuous support we receive from the American people and specifically for this critical contribution. Thanks to this generous and timely grant, we will now be able to fully re-instate rations for refugees that we support.”
Those who continued to benefit from full nutrition assistance included pregnant and nursing mothers, children under two years-old and malnourished children under five years-old, as well as school children, people living with HIV and tuberculosis patients under treatment.
The United States is the largest donor to WFP humanitarian and development programmes in Rwanda, contributing US$16 million in 2017.