WFP has approved a US $270-million emergency food aid programme for the volatile Great Lakes region. The two-year operation, which will start in August, will each month supply 422,000 mt of food to an average of 1.25 million war-affected persons in Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, WFP said today in a press release. This will be one of the agency’s biggest operations in the world and its second largest in Africa after its massive food-distribution programme in the Sudan. Beneficiaries will include some 770,000 refugees and displaced persons in Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania. Assistance will also be provided for 280,000 former refugees and displaced persons who have returned to their home areas but are not yet self-sufficient, WFP said. A contingency budget line has been included to allow another 200,000 persons to receive food assistance, since new population displacements in the region are constantly creating additional needs.
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