New York - Khartoum: Europe and the Arabs
The World Food Program has warned of an emergency hunger crisis looming on the border between Sudan and South Sudan, as families fleeing fighting in Sudan continue to cross the border. According to what was stated in the United Nations daily news bulletin, a copy of which we received on Wednesday morning
The program said in a press statement yesterday, Tuesday, that the data it collected show that “of the nearly 300,000 people who arrived in South Sudan in the past five months, one in five children suffer from malnutrition, and 90 percent of families say they spend several weeks.” Days without eating.
He explained that almost all of those who have crossed the border since the outbreak of fighting in Sudan in mid-April are from South Sudan, and are returning to a country already facing unprecedented humanitarian needs.
A new food security assessment prepared by the World Food Program shows that 90 percent of returning families suffer from moderate or severe food insecurity.
Screening data collected at the border crossing also revealed that nearly 20 percent of children under the age of five, and more than a quarter of pregnant and breastfeeding women, suffer from malnutrition.

From danger to despair
“We are witnessing families moving from one disaster to another as they flee danger in Sudan, only to find despair in South Sudan,” said WFP Country Director for South Sudan, Mary Ellen McGroarty.
She stressed that the humanitarian situation of the returnees is “unacceptable,” stressing that the program is struggling to meet the increasing humanitarian needs at the border.
“We simply do not have the resources to provide life-saving assistance to those who need it most,” McGroarty added.
The rainy season has made conditions at crowded transit centers and border crossings more difficult, with floods exacerbating food insecurity and contributing to the spread of disease, the World Food Program reported.
Many families also reported being subjected to theft and violence as they fled the war in Sudan and crossed the border into South Sudan with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.

Financing gap
The World Food Program said it is providing food aid to meet the immediate needs of families at the border, but urgently needs more than $120 million to increase support for those fleeing the Sudan war in South Sudan over the next few months.
He added that significant resources are also needed to help people move from the crowded border area, and to support them as they rebuild their lives in South Sudan, a country where many returnees have never physically lived.
The WFP confirmed that across South Sudan it faces a funding gap of US$536 million over the next six months, and has only been able to provide food assistance to 40 percent of food insecure people in 2023.
Also, those receiving assistance receive only half of their rations due to lack of funding, which deepens food insecurity.