Addis Ababa — The Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced on Monday a $10 million support for six Horn of African countries affected by the current drought, including Ethiopia which is to receive one million USD.

Other Horn countries to benefit are Somalia, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, and Djibouti among which the 10 million USD will be distributed.

It is to be recalled that millions of people in the Horn countries have been affected by this year drought. The majority of the affected are the pastoralist community in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.

The Saudi embassy in Addis Ababa said that the money, to be channeled through the world Food Program (WFP) will go towards assisting efforts being exerted to combat the drought calamities in countries of the Horn.

"The cash donation of the Kingdom is to be forwarded to the WFP that will be in charge of buying and distributing the food-stuffs, taking into consideration the needs of each country and its transportation, unloading and storing," the embassy said in a press release sent to The Daily Monitor yesterday.

According to the embassy , officials from the Ministry of Finance in the Kingdom are to join the WFP in the process of distributing the food-stuffs bought by the Saudi contribution in the concerned countries, which is due to start in mid June 2006.

The WFP office in Ethiopia said on its part said that the money will be utilized for local purchase of maize in order to help the drought affected people in the Somali region.

Melese Awoke, Senior Public Information Assistant at WFP Ethiopian office said that the money will help in buying 1,500 MT maize .

He added that the donation will help WFP to feed around 100,000 people in the area for about a month.

"The Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency (DPPA) will be in charge of distributing the grains in the region.DPPA is the implementing body which is in charge of identifying which weredas and Kebeles are illegible to receive the support from this donation.WFP will only monitor the implementation activities by DPPA," Melese told The Daily Monitor over the phone Monday.