Kathmandu, September 18:

The United States has provided $750,000 to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to help feed Bhutanese refugees in Nepal, the US Embassy said in a press release.

The US State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) provided the funds as part of a recent $11.5 million donation to the WFP. WFP Executive Director James Morris said: “Thanks to this timely and generous US contribution, there will now be sufficient funding for nine refugee operations in Africa and a further three in Asia until the end of this year.” His comments were reported in a September 1 WFP news release.

Within the US government, the PRM has primary responsibility for formulating policies on population, refugees, and migration, and for administering US refugee assistance and admissions programmes, the release added.