By: Jotham Alinaitwe
KAMPALA
The Japanese Government has donated 2,000 tonnes of rice to the refugees in Uganda.
The Japanese Ambassador to Uganda, Fukazawa Hidemoto, announced the donation at a meeting with the Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness, and Refugees, Hon. Hillary Onek at the Office of the Prime Minister in Kampala on Thursday.
Marcus Prior, the Deputy Country Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), said the rice will be supplied to 50,000 refugees, who recently arrived in Uganda from South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, and Sudan.
Onek said that feeding of refugees is an international responsibility and praised the Japanese government for its support towards Uganda’s National refugee response. Currently, he added that refugees have a single meal a day and some have resorted to stealing food to survive. He reiterated his call to the international community to provide Uganda with additional funds to take care of the growing refugee population.
Uganda is currently hosting 1.6 million refugees. It is the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa and among the biggest refugee-hosting nations around the world. Hidemoto said Japan will continue to support Uganda’s National refugee response.
Prior said the WFP is now prioritising the most vulnerable refugees for food assistance. He added that the less vulnerable refugees have been weaned off food aid and connected to long-term livelihood support.
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