Japan pledges emergency food aid

Responding to an appeal by the World Food Programme (WFP), Japan has pledged US $418,000 for emergency food relief to war-torn Somalia, the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported on Tuesday. Quoting a statement from the Japanese embassy in Nairobi, Kyodo said Japan had pledged the money to forestall further deterioration of the overall humanitarian situation in Somalia. "Japan decided to provide part of the funds necessary for WFP to procure relief food to benefit 600,000 hunger-stricken people," Kyodo quoted the statement as saying. WFP issued the appeal to the international community for 20,000 mt of relief food supplies for the Horn of Africa in August. However, Kyodo quoted a WFP senior official in Nairobi as saying the agency had only received 1,370 mt of food, of which 700 mt was contributed by Japan and 670 mt by the Dutch government.