Millions of people displaced by the war in Sudan face the risk of plunging even deeper into crisis as funding for food aid rapidly dries up, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Monday.
Since April 2023, the conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has triggered the world’s largest displacement crisis, forcing more than 10 million people from their homes within Sudan.
An additional four million have crossed borders, seeking refuge mainly in Chad, Egypt, and South Sudan.
“This is a full-blown regional crisis that’s playing out in countries that already have extreme levels of food insecurity and high levels of conflict,” said Shaun Hughes, WFP’s emergency coordinator for the Sudan regional crisis.
The UN revealed that its humanitarian response plan for Sudan — also the world’s largest hunger crisis — is just 14.4 percent funded.
A UN conference taking place in Spain this week is aimed at rallying international donors, amid widespread funding gaps that have disrupted relief efforts around the world.
The WFP warned that support for Sudanese refugees in Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, and the Central African Republic “may grind to a halt in the coming months as resources run dry”.
In Egypt, where around 1.5 million Sudanese have sought refuge, food aid for 85,000 people — 36 percent of those previously supported — has already been cut.
Without fresh funding, WFP cautioned that all assistance to the most vulnerable refugees would be halted entirely by August.
In Chad, which has taken in more than 850,000 Sudanese refugees, camps are overwhelmed and resources are thin. The WFP said food rations there are set to be reduced even further.
Around 1,000 refugees continue to arrive in Chad each day from Sudan’s western Darfur region, where famine has been declared and displacement camps are frequently under attack.
“Refugees from Sudan are fleeing for their lives and yet are being met with more hunger, despair, and limited resources on the other side of the border,” Hughes said.
“Food assistance is a lifeline for vulnerable refugee families with nowhere else to turn.”
Inside Sudan itself, more than eight million people are believed to be on the verge of famine, with nearly 25 million facing severe food insecurity.
