ABU DHABI // A generous donation by Princess Haya of Jordan, the wife of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, will help to ease food shortages and reduce malnutrition among South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia.
Princess Haya donated US$500,000 (Dh1.87m) towards emergency food rations for South Sudanese refugees in the Gambella region, according to United Nation’s refugee agency (UNHCR) on Wednesday.
Her Highness is also the chairwoman of the UAE’s International Humanitarian City, one of the world’s largest logistics centres for humanitarian aid.
Part of the donation will help to feed more than 120,000 refugees and set up a better system to process food rations.
More than 430,000 South Sudanese have fled to Ethiopia, and about 131,000 new refugees have arrived in Ethiopia since mid-December. Women and children comprise 95 per cent of the refugees.
“The situation in the Gambella region of Ethiopia is extremely concerning,” said Imran Riza, the UNHCR regional representative to the Arabian Gulf.
“The worsening security climate, coupled with a severe shortage of food, has already resulted in thousands of lives lost, with almost 5 million people affected.”
The UNHCR estimates that half of South Sudan’s 12 million people could face starvation by the end of the year because of the ongoing civil war in the country and harsh weather conditions.
Hundreds of thousands of malnourished refugees, many in poor health, were forced to leave South Sudan after the civil war broke out in December last year.
They have since fled to neighbouring Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia over the past six months.
UNHCR has appealed for $427m to meet the basic needs of the refugees in those countries and others displaced in South Sudan.
Presently, funding for the emergency response is only at 21 per cent.
UNHCR believes that about 300,000 South Sudanese refugees will have fled to Ethiopia by the end of the year.
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