Khartoum — The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a contribution of US$1 million from the Government of Japan to provide life-saving food assistance to hundreds of thousands of refugees and Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Sudan. An estimated 60 percent of IDPs and 50 percent of refugees are food insecure in Sudan. This funding will enable WFP to purchase 568 mt of sorghum and 400 mt of salt to support the food needs of more than 650,000 refugees and IDPs.

"A record number of people are facing hunger in Sudan due to the combined effects of economic crisis, conflict, displacement, weather-related disasters and high food and fuel prices," said Eddie Rowe, WFP's Country Director in Sudan.

"This generous contribution from Japan will enable WFP to support some of the most food-insecure families in the country."

Around 15 million people - one-third of Sudan's population - faced hunger during the 2022 lean season and early indications are that there will be little improvement to the food security situation in 2023.

"It is our honour to continue our work with WFP Sudan through our project 'Emergency Grant Aid for global food security - Sudan', which is part of Japan's global response to the deterioration of food security worldwide. Given the dire and deteriorating humanitarian situation here in Sudan, I sincerely hope that our contribution would help support vulnerable people, including refugees and IDPs," said Takashi Hattori, Japan's Ambassador to Sudan.

In 2022, WFP supported more than nine million people in Sudan, of which over 700,000 were refugees and around 3.6 million were IDPs.

This contribution is in addition to US$5.5 million provided by the Government of Japan in 2021 and 2022 for WFP's emergency food assistance response in Sudan.