Rome — The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday, of a "looming emergency hunger crisis" on the Sudan-South Sudan border, as families fleeing the fighting in Sudan continue to cross the border.

In its statement posted on Tuesday, the WFP stated that "Of the nearly 300,000 people who have arrived in South Sudan in the past five months, one in five children is malnourished, and 90 percent of households say they spend several days without eating."

Almost all of those who have crossed the border since fighting erupted in Sudan in mid-April are South Sudanese, returning to a country already facing unprecedented humanitarian needs.

A new food security assessment by the WFP shows that 90 per cent of returning households are moderately or severely food insecure.

The WFP said it was providing food assistance to meet the immediate needs of families at the border, but urgently needed more than US$120 million to increase support for those fleeing Sudan's war in South Sudan over the next few months.

Across South Sudan, the WFP is facing a funding gap of US$536 million over the next six months, and has been able to provide food assistance to only 40 per cent of food-insecure people in 2023.

Screening data collected at the border crossing revealed that about 20 percent of children under the age of five, and more than a quarter of pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished.

WFP Country Director for South Sudan, Mary-Ellen McGroarty, said: "We are witnessing families going from disaster to disaster as they flee danger in Sudan only to find despair in South Sudan."

'From disaster to despair'

The humanitarian situation of returnees is "unacceptable", she said, stressing that WFP is struggling to meet the growing humanitarian needs at the border.

"We simply don't have the resources to provide life-saving assistance to those who need it most," McGroarty said.

The rainy season has made conditions at crowded transit centres and border crossings more difficult, with floods exacerbating food insecurity and contributing to the spread of disease, WFP reported.

Those who receive assistance receive only half of the rations due to lack of funding, deepening food insecurity.

Many families also reported being robbed and subjected to violence as they fled the war in Sudan and crossed the border into South Sudan with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.