Millions of Sudanese refugees face cuts to life-saving food aid as global funding runs short, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned. The WFP said it may have to make drastic cuts to food help that could grind to a halt in Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia and Libya in the coming months. More than two years after war broke out between Sudan’s army and paramilitary rebels, the situation for many refugees is already dire.
In Uganda, many vulnerable refugees are surviving on less than 500 calories a day—less than a quarter of what people need to stay healthy. New arrivals are putting huge pressure on refugee support systems that are already stretched thin. Chad hosts almost a quarter of the four million refugees who fled Sudan, and food rations will be cut in the coming months without new money coming in.
Children are getting hit the hardest by long periods of hunger. Malnutrition rates among young refugees in reception centers in Uganda and South Sudan have already passed emergency levels. WFP said refugees are already severely malnourished even before they arrive in neighboring countries to get emergency help.
Shaun Hughes, WFP Emergency Coordinator for the Sudan Regional Crisis, said this is a full-blown regional crisis playing out in countries that already have extreme levels of food insecurity and high levels of conflict. Millions of people who fled Sudan depend completely on support from WFP, but without more funding the agency will be forced to make more cuts to food help.
This will leave vulnerable families, and particularly children, at increasingly severe risk of hunger and malnutrition, Hughes said.
