WFP may cut food aid to Sudan within weeks
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) may significantly reduce food aid in Sudan in the coming weeks due to a lack of funding. About 20 million people in the war-torn country are suffering from acute hunger, The National (UAE) reports.
Funding shortfall
Acting WFP chief Carl Skau said that the organization’s operations in Sudan are “completely underfunded.” According to him, without additional funds, the program will have to substantially reduce the scale of its work within a few weeks.
The WFP needs just under $300 million to maintain its current operations. Since the beginning of the year, the agency has received about $206 million, compared with $645 million in funding last year. Humanitarian organizations overall are facing cuts in donor funding.
Hunger and forced displacement
According to Skau’s assessment, Sudan remains the world’s largest hunger and forced displacement crisis. Fourteen million people have been forcibly displaced in the country, about five million are experiencing emergency levels of hunger, and approximately 200,000 people are facing catastrophic food shortages.
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Every month, the WFP assists between four and five million people, including up to 2.5 million residents of hard-to-reach areas. In Tawila, Darfur, where nearly one million people have now found shelter, the organization provides food to about 950,000 people each month. At the same time, it can provide only half rations — food sufficient for two weeks.
Drought in Darfur
The funding shortfall has emerged amid a drought that threatens to further worsen food security in Darfur and affect agricultural production. According to Skau, the region has not been this dry since 1984, even though the rainy season is currently underway.
He also visited El Fasher, where, after an 18-month siege, hunger and atrocities, he said, only tens of thousands of residents remain out of the approximately one million who lived there previously. The WFP is currently delivering life-saving food aid to around 20,000 people in the city. Fighting is intensifying in Kordofan and Blue Nile, according to Skau’s assessment.
