Kuwait city: The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday of a severe funding shortfall that now threatens to halt food assistance for refugees fleeing the war in Sudan, leading to worsening hunger and malnutrition, particularly among women and children.
According to Kuwait News Agency, Shaun Hughes, the WFP's regional emergency coordinator, speaking via video link from the Kenyan capital Nairobi during a press conference held in Geneva, also warned that the program's operations for Sudanese refugees are on the verge of a complete shutdown in the coming months in the Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Libya due to depleted resources.
He added that refugees in Chad, Uganda, and South Sudan have also experienced reductions in food rations, warning that the situation is expected to deteriorate further unless the necessary funding arrives urgently. He explained that more than four million people have fled Sudan since the war broke out more than two years ago, and most arrive in neighboring countries suffering from hunger and malnutrition.
He pointed out that children are the most vulnerable to malnutrition amid ongoing food insecurity, noting that rates of acute malnutrition among refugee children in Uganda and South Sudan have exceeded emergency thresholds. Hughes called on the international community to "mobilize urgent resources" to secure more than USD 200 million to support Sudanese refugees over the next six months, in addition to providing USD 575 million for life-saving operations within Sudan, where the WFP is currently assisting around five million people each month.
He stressed that humanitarian aid alone cannot end the conflict or stop forced displacement, calling for urgent global political and diplomatic action to end the fighting and enable the Sudanese people to regain peace and return to their homes.