The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme(WFP) are joining forces to improve access to food for over 100,000 people in Kasai, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The two UN agencies will step up their food aid thanks to $10 million in funding from the Belgian government. Some 18,000 households - displaced persons, returnees or host families - will benefit from this aid.
"Thanks to this important contribution, we are in a position to redouble our efforts and work closely together to prevent people, especially children, from dying of hunger and malnutrition", Alexis Bonte, FAO Acting Representative in the DRC.
As part of the project, the WFP will distribute fortified corn flour, pulses, fortified vegetable oil and iodized salt, as well as cash. Children aged between 6 and 59 months, as well as pregnant and nursing women, will be provided with special nutritional supplements for three months.
For its part, the FAO will provide kits for growing vegetables - hoe, rake, shovel, watering can, vegetable and fruit seeds - which will enable each family to eat its fill for two months and sell the surplus.