ROME — The world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis shows no signs of slowing down, as this month marks more than 1,000 days of brutal conflict in Sudan this month. This comes as the World Food Programme (WFP) is struggling to keep lifesaving emergency operations running.
WFP has reached over 10 million of the most vulnerable women, men and children in Sudan with emergency food, cash and nutrition assistance since the resurgence of civil conflict in April 2023. The agency continues to deliver lifesaving food aid to an average of 4 million people every month, including in previously hard-to-reach areas across the Darfur and Kordofan regions and Khartoum and Al Jazira states.
“These hard-earned gains now risk being reversed,” said Ross Smith, WFP director of emergency preparedness and response. “WFP has been forced to reduce rations to the absolute minimum for survival. By the end of March, we will have depleted our food stocks in Sudan. Without immediate additional funding, millions of people will be left without vital food assistance within weeks.”
WFP has teams on the ground and the access to scale up and save more lives, funding permitted. Over the last six months, nearly 1.8 million people — in famine or risk of famine areas — have received regular monthly WFP assistance, helping to push back hunger in nine locations. Recent breakthroughs, including a joint UN convoy into Kadugli in October, have offered a narrow window to reach families who have been cut off from assistance for months.
After more than two years of fighting, more than 21 million people face acute hunger in Sudan. Famine has been confirmed in parts of the country where months of fighting made access for aid workers largely impossible and nearly 12 million people have been forced to flee their homes.
Today, 3.7 million children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are also malnourished. Recent surveys indicate record levels of malnutrition in some locations of North Darfur, where up to more than half of the young children are malnourished.
“One thousand days of conflict is 1 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 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.”
WFP urgently requires $700 million to continue its operations in Sudan from January to June.
# # #
Note to the editor:
High-resolution photos available here
The World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the world’s leading humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate extremes.
Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, via @wfp_media, @wfp_sudan
This article was originally published on wfp.org
