Uganda’s Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Haruna Kasolo Kyeyune, on Monday received Letters of Credence from Baimankay Sankoh, the newly appointed Country Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) to Uganda, in a ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in Kampala.
Sankoh takes over from Lauren Landis, who served as WFP Country Director in Uganda before moving on from the post. During her tenure, Landis oversaw WFP’s continued humanitarian support to vulnerable communities, particularly in northern Uganda, and worked closely with government on the country’s refugee response, commending Uganda’s policy of allocating land and services to refugees.
WFP has long been a key partner to Uganda, running programmes that span emergency food assistance, school feeding, support to smallholder farmers, and resilience-building initiatives for communities affected by drought, displacement and other shocks. The agency has also supported the government’s efforts to host one of Africa’s largest refugee populations, with operations concentrated in the north and in refugee-hosting districts across the country.
Welcoming Sankoh to her new posting, Kasolo reaffirmed Uganda’s commitment to working closely with WFP on food security and sustainable development. He pointed to the country’s continued peace and stability under President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as a factor supporting agricultural productivity and regional food security efforts.
For her part, Sankoh pledged to strengthen WFP’s partnership with the Ugandan government, citing priority areas such as expanding local food procurement, supporting smallholder farmers, growing school feeding programmes, and building community resilience. She described Uganda’s year-round agricultural output as a valuable asset positioning the country as a reliable regional food source.
Both officials committed to deepening cooperation in support of vulnerable communities.
The credentials ceremony came the same day Kasolo held separate talks with IGAD’s Head of Mission to Uganda, Joselyn Bigirwa, on a new 2026–2030 Uganda Country Strategy that would shift the regional bloc’s engagement from broad regional programmes toward more targeted bilateral cooperation, aligned with Uganda’s Fourth National Development Plan.
