The UN agency has provided food, cash, and nutrition assistance to 10 million vulnerable people since the conflict began and continues to deliver aid to an average of four million people monthly, including in previously hard-to-reach areas in the Darfur and the Kordofan regions as well as Khartoum and Al Jazira states. However, “these hard-earned gains now risk being reversed,” said Ross Smith, Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response, as WFP has been forced to reduce rations to the absolute minimum. “By the end of March, we will have depleted our food stocks in Sudan,” he warned.
Millions going hungry
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and military rivals the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a battle for power since mid-April 2023, creating the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis. More than 21 million people are not getting enough to eat, and famine has been confirmed in parts of the country where humanitarian access is practically impossible. The fighting has forced nearly 12 million people to flee their homes and seek shelter elsewhere in Sudan, or across the border. Furthermore, some 3.7 million children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are malnourished. Recent surveys have documented record levels of malnutrition in some locations of North Darfur, where more than half of all young children are affected.
‘We can turn the tide’
WFP has teams in Sudan and the access to scale up and save more lives, yet funding remains a challenge and $700 million is urgently needed to continue operations through June. In the past six months, WFP has provided regular assistance to nearly 1.8 million people in famine areas or where the threat exists, which has helped to push back hunger in nine locations. Recent breakthroughs have included a joint UN convoy into Kadugli in October – one of the areas where families have been cut off from aid for months. “One thousand days of conflict is one thousand days too many. Every single day that fighting continues, families are falling deeper into hunger and communities are pushed further to the brink,” said Mr. Smith. “We can turn the tide and avert famine conditions spreading further, but only if we have the funding to support these most vulnerable families.”
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