BEIJING - China has donated 16 million US dollars to the World Food Program (WFP) to support its famine-relief operations in Somalia, said a WFP press release on Sunday.

It is China's largest single donation to WFP, adding the country's donation to WFP this year to $20 million, according to the release.

The donation will be directly delivered to WFP's food aid program in famine-hit Somalia, where about 1.5 million people are receiving emergency rations of food, said the release.

"It fully reveals Chinese people's greetings and heartful care for people around the world," said WFP Deputy Executive Director Amir Mahmoud Abdulla in the statement. China had emerged as an important donor for WFP programs around the world, he added.

Currently the core task of WFP's relief operations in Somalia is to provide ready-to-use food, which is effective in keeping teenagers from malnutrition, according to the release.

Somalia has been experiencing the most severe food crisis in African history. About 3.6 million people in the country are at risk of starvation, accounting for half of its population. More than half of all Somali children are undernourished, with six infants dying from malnutrition every day.

The WFP, founded in 1962, is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting global hunger.