World Food Programme Warns of Imminent Sudan Aid Cuts as 20 Million Face Acute Hunger

The World Food Programme could be forced to sharply cut food aid to Sudan within weeks due to a severe funding shortfall, its acting chief warned on Monday, leaving 20 million people in the war-torn country facing acute hunger.

“Our operations are completely underfunded and there is a risk that we will have to scale back quite significantly in the next few weeks unless more funding is being provided,” Carl Skau told reporters in New York following an eight-day visit to the US.

Mr. Skau stated that the World Food Programme requires just under $300 million to sustain its current operations in Sudan. The agency has secured approximately $206 million so far this year, a steep drop from the $645 million received last year, as humanitarian organizations grapple with a broader decline in donor funding.

Sudan continues to experience the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, according to Mr. Skau, with 14 million people displaced and about five million facing emergency levels of hunger. Furthermore, approximately 200,000 individuals are suffering from catastrophic levels of food shortages.

Hanan Hassan, a 39-year-old displaced Sudanese mother of five, prepares food at a camp in Tawila, North Darfur, illustrating the daily struggles faced by millions. While the World Food Programme reaches between four million and five million people monthly—including up to 2.5 million in hard-to-reach areas—funding constraints are severely restricting its assistance.

In Tawila, Darfur, where nearly one million people are currently sheltering, the agency provides food to about 950,000 individuals each month, but can only afford to distribute half rations. Mr. Skau explained that these recipients receive only enough food to last for two weeks out of the month.

Compounding the crisis, severe drought threatens to worsen food insecurity in Darfur and devastate agricultural production. Mr. Skau noted that Darfur has not been this dry since 1984, raising widespread fears of a catastrophic impact on agricultural outcomes during the rainy season.

During his travels, Mr. Skau also visited El Fasher, where only tens of thousands of people remain following an 18-month siege, famine, and atrocities, down from a former population of about one million. He stated that life-saving food assistance reaching roughly 20,000 people is the sole remaining lifeline for those still in the city.

Meanwhile, fighting is intensifying in Kordofan and Blue Nile, which Mr. Skau identified as the new centers of the conflict. He emphasized the collective failure to protect El Fasher and support displaced persons in camps, declaring that the agency must step up its efforts.