The World Food Program (WFP) has issued a stark warning that food aid for millions of Sudanese refugees across four neighbouring countries could be cut off within the next two months without an urgent injection of new funding.
Over four million refugees who have fled Sudan’s ongoing civil war are at risk, according to Shaun Hughes, WFP’s Emergency Coordinator for the Sudan Regional Crisis.
"Unless new funding is secured, all refugees will face assistance cuts in the coming months," Shaun Hughes, the WFP's emergency coordinator for the Sudan regional crisis, told a Geneva press briefing, calling for $200 million over six months.
"In the case of four countries — that's the Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia and Libya — WFP's operations are now so severely underfunded that all support could cease in the coming months as resources run dry," he said, clarifying later that this could happen within two months.
Catastrophic levels of hunger
Currently, 24.6 million people, approximately half of Sudan’s population, are suffering from acute food insecurity.
Among them, 637,000 individuals face catastrophic levels of hunger, the highest figure reported anywhere in the world.
Children are particularly vulnerable, with over one in three experiencing acute malnutrition, surpassing the 20 percent threshold used to confirm famine conditions.
The WFP warns that without immediate international support, both refugee-hosting countries and Sudan itself will face a worsening humanitarian catastrophe, with millions left without food assistance and malnutrition rates continuing to rise at an alarming pace.
