The Department of Agriculture and Food is to donate £1.8 million to the World Food Programme, the Minister, Mr Walsh, has announced.
The donation includes Ireland's contribution under the 1995 Food Aid Convention and an additional voluntary contribution to the work of the World Food Programme.
The voluntary contribution, said Mr Walsh, will be used to support the efforts of the World Food Programme to combat world hunger in Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya.
"This contribution is yet another concrete representation of our commitment to the important role of humanitarian assistance," said Mr Walsh.
He highlighted the fact that £400,000 of the donation will be used to provide emergency food aid to people currently facing starvation in the Sudan, where the situation is critical.
He said several hundreds of thousands of displaced and war-affected persons are dependent on emergency relief food assistance as the conflict has disrupted food production systems in the Sudan.
He said the donation, combined with other Government donations and actions by non-governmental organisations, will help the delivery of food aid for emergency feeding programmes in Southern Sudan.
Mr Walsh added that funding will also be directed towards the provision of food aid in Ethiopia for victims of recent crop failures and for refugees from Sudan, Somali, Djibouti and Kenya, who are currently being given refuge in Ethopia.
