NAIROBI, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- The European Union has provided 4.13 million U.S. dollars to support a joint project to protect vulnerable communities in the Greater Horn of Africa from the devastating impacts of climate extremes, conflict, and displacement, the World Food Program (WFP) said Monday.

The project will support 450,000 vulnerable people in Ethiopia and Somalia for two years by reducing the impacts of forecasted shocks before they become crises through capacity strengthening of weather agencies to provide timely, accurate forecasts, enabling better community and government response, the UN agency said.

"Increasingly frequent and intense climate extremes such as droughts and floods are compounding existing drivers of hunger such as conflict, displacement and economic instability," Rukia Yacoub, WFP's deputy regional director for Eastern Africa, said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

"As livestock and crops perish, livelihoods are lost, and hunger deepens," the statement said. "Early action saves lives, builds people's resilience to face future crises, and eases the strain on limited humanitarian resources."

The project will be implemented by the WFP, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Climate Prediction and Applications Center of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development and the Danish Refugee Council, according to the statement. Enditem

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