Location: Africa
Sudan’s war, which has claimed thousands of lives, forced millions from their homes, and sparked economic turmoil across the region, is deepening the hunger crisis warns the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) as the conflict approaches its one-year mark.
WFP has managed to bring desperately needed food and nutrition supplies into Darfur. Yet, the U.N. food agency warns that unless the people of Sudan receive a constant flow of aid via all possible humanitarian corridors, the country’s hunger catastrophe will only worsen.
Carl Skau, WFP Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, speaks at the Security Council Session on the hunger crisis in Sudan and its regional impacts.
Sudan’s war has shattered millions of lives and created the world’s largest displacement crisis. Now this catastrophe also risks becoming the world’s largest hunger crisis, unless fighting stops, WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain warns.
With $500,000 from Citi Foundation, WFP is ramping up a ground-breaking initiative that seeks to strengthen resilience to climate crises and boost financial inclusion for 17,200 small-scale farmers in Zambia over the next two years.
Since late 2023, WFP has activated more robust delivery mechanisms for its operations in Ethiopia, a significant step in assuring the delivery of critical food assistance to the hungriest populations affected by drought, flooding and conflict.
WFP urgently calls on Sudan’s warring parties to provide immediate guarantees for the safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian food assistance to conflict-hit parts of Sudan.
WFP has been forced to temporarily suspend food assistance in some parts of Gezira State, as fighting spreads south and east of Sudan’s capital Khartoum.
Parts of war-ravaged Sudan are at a high risk of slipping into catastrophic hunger conditions by next year’s lean season if WFP is unable to expand access and regularly deliver food assistance to people trapped in conflict hotspots.
WFP is today warning of a looming halt to its food and nutrition assistance to 1.4 million crisis-affected populations in Chad – including newly arrived Sudanese refugees – due to funding constraints.
WFP is activating its revamped approach to operations in Ethiopia, a major step which will start to reach 3.2 million people with food assistance for the first time since June 2023.
In its continued commitment to advance farmer livelihoods around the world, the Zoetis Foundation supports World Food Program USA in helping WFP address food insecurity in Ethiopia and Kenya.