By Xinhua,
Tokyo : Japan offered more than 53 million U.S. dollars on Friday in food aid to Africa, Afghanistan and the Palestinians.
The Foreign Ministry said Japan decided to allocate 5.57 billion yen (53.4 million U.S. dollars) of grant aid to help ameliorate the food crisis in 10 African nations, Afghanistan and the Palestinian autonomous region.
The aid is the first provision from the 100 million dollars Japan pledged last month in emergency food aid over three months, the ministry said.
Most of the aid will go to the World Food Program before reaching Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Afghanistan, the Palestinian autonomous region and other areas suffering chronic food shortages.
Part of the aid is earmarked for Palestinian refugees through the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, according to the ministry.
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Japan plans “to proactively take up this issue of food prices at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development next week and at the Group of Eight summit” in July.