Addis Ababa — - The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said Tuesday it may be forced to cut food rations in South Sudan in September if funding is not available immediately.
According to the WFP, severe funding shortfalls mean it can reach just 2.5 million people -- only 30 percent of people facing severe hunger -- across the country with emergency food assistance.
"Further reductions in rations and assistance will be necessary in September if additional funds are not urgently received," the WFP said in a statement issued in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
The statement came after the WFP said last week that it urgently required 274 million USD to maintain support for just the 2.5 million most acutely food insecure through the end of the year.
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WFP Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Carl Skau, who visited South Sudan on July 17-20, said the scale of the humanitarian needs in South Sudan is staggering.
"But the scale of suffering here does not make headlines. Whether it is families trapped every year by flooding in Unity State or others trapped by conflict in Upper Nile State -- millions of mothers, fathers, and children spend each day fighting hunger to survive," said Skau.
According to the WFP, some 7.7 million people, or 57 percent of the population, are facing crisis, emergency, or catastrophic levels of hunger while an unprecedented 2.3 million children are at risk of malnutrition.
South Sudan, the world's youngest country, gained independence in 2011. This gave way to a brutal and devastating civil war which ended in 2018 thanks to a peace agreement between political rivals which has largely held.
However, recent political tensions and increased violent attacks, especially in Upper Nile state, threaten to unravel the peace agreement and return the nation to conflict.
The humanitarian emergency crisis has been exacerbated by the war in neighbouring Sudan.
Since April 2023, nearly 1.2 million people have crossed the border into South Sudan, many of them hungry, traumatised and without support.
