NAIROBI, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is seeking to spend 10.2 billion Kenyan shillings (100 million U.S. dollars) for food relief for refugees hosted in Kenya, officials said on Monday.

Antonio Salort-pons, head of government and private sector partnerships at WFP Kenya Country Office, told Xinhua in Nairobi their target is to provide humanitarian relief to approximately 420,000 refugees in the country.

"Our funding is geared towards improving the livelihoods and nutritional status of refugees in Kenya," Salort-pons said, adding that Kenya's legislation does not allow refugees to work and therefore often require humanitarian assistance.

WFP gets its funding from a number of European countries as well as China. In 2017 China gave a donation of 5 million dollars to the WFP to extend food assistance to refugees in Kenya.

The UN agency has also earmarked another 100 million dollars to build the resilience of communities in Kenya's arid-and-semi-arid areas (ASALs), according to the UN official.

Salort-pons said that ASALs areas, especially in the northeastern region are host communities of refugees and therefore also require assistance. Enditem

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