The world’s biggest hunger crisis is getting worse and the money to stop it is running out.

Sudan’s humanitarian nightmare just took a devastating turn. According to cbinews.tv, funding for the World Food Programme in Sudan has fallen by about half this year even as war pushes millions more into hunger.

Acting Executive Director Carl Skau told Reuters after a trip across Darfur that access used to be the biggest headache. Now he said we have a presence that we are not fully utilising because of the lack of funding.

The numbers are stark. Last year WFP received 645 million dollars for Sudan. So far this year, almost three quarters in, it has only 206 million dollars. The gap to keep current ops going is just short of 300 million dollars.

This is not abstract. War between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces since April 2023 has displaced up to 14 million people, wrecked harvests and shattered the economy. Almost 20 million people now face hunger.

Because of cuts, WFP can only focus on the five million most in need, and even then it is reaching four million. In Tawila in North Darfur, now a makeshift home to about one million people, families get a half ration that lasts two weeks. Skau said it is not clear how they really survive the other two weeks.

In El Obeid, where about one million people have sought refuge, only recent arrivals get help. Skau said we are providing less and less. A year ago it was better because of resources.

Sudan is now the world’s largest hunger crisis. The UN agency IOM says 8.6 million remain displaced inside Sudan while 4.9 million have gone back to damaged homes. IOM itself says emergency shelter and household supplies could run out by the end of September and the whole aid system could only keep going till December without cash.

This is part of a wider collapse. Aid budgets are plummeting after the Trump administration, previously the world’s biggest donor, cut billions in foreign assistance. Other major donors have also cut aid, citing tight finances and higher defence spending. IOM needs 15 million dollars to support about 305,000 people for the rest of the year. Without it, over 100 humanitarian groups will struggle to deliver lifesaving aid.

IOM chief Amy Pope said we simply cannot turn our back on the people of Sudan and warned the entire humanitarian system could collapse within weeks.

WFP has just started providing aid again in Al Fashir, once home to one million people, after an RSF attack last year that investigators said bore the hallmarks of genocide. Skau said there is little sign of life having returned. Unless donors step in urgently, rations will shrink further, and supply lines will snap.

#Sudan #SudanCrisis #HungerCrisis #WFP #Darfur #HumanitarianCrisis #AfricaNews