Funding Crunch, Rising Needs Force UN Aid Cuts to South Sudan

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has said that food assistance to 1.7 million people in South Sudan has been suspended. Adeyinka Badejo-Sanogo, WFP acting country director in South Sudan, said they had planned to provide food assistance to 6.2 million people in 2022 but faced increasing humanitarian needs and insufficient funding. "We have taken the painful step to suspend food assistance to 1.7 million people', she said.

Badejo-Sanogo said that more than two in three people are experiencing a serious humanitarian and protection crisis, and need help to survive. Of these, she estimated that 8.3 million people, including internally displaced persons and refugees, will endure acute severe hunger during the lean season.

In 2021, one million people fled their homes because of the flooding in South Sudan. In 2022 it is estimated that approximately 600,000 are in the path of expanding flood waters and at risk of displacement.

Chronic levels of violence in parts of the country continues to drive displacement and vulnerability, Badejo-Sanogo said. In late April 2022, additional UN peacekeepers were deployed to Leer county, after a surge in rapes, beheadings, the burning of civilians and attacks on humanitarian aid workers.