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KHARTOUM: The World Food Programme\u2019s funding for Sudan \u2014 the world\u2019s largest hunger crisis \u2014 has fallen by about \u200bhalf this year, its acting head told Reuters, as war drives more people into hunger while the regional crisis raises prices and aid budgets plummet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaking from the Darfur region after a trip across the country, acting Executive Director Carl Skau said that while access had represented humanitarians\u2019 largest obstacle in the past, now \u201cwe have (a) presence that we are not fully utilising because of the lack of funding.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The gap to sustain current operations was just short of $300 million, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nThis year, we\u2019re about half what we were in terms of funding last year, says Carl Skau, Acting executive director of The World Food Programme<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u201cThis year, we\u2019re about half what we were in terms of funding last year,\u201d Skau said. Last year, the agency received $645 million, but almost three-quarters into this year funding is only \u200cat $206 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The war \u200cbetween Sudan\u2019s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has devastated \u200bwide \u200cswathes \u2060of the \u200bcountry, displacing \u2060up to 14 million people, ruining harvests and decimating the economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Almost 20 million people face hunger in Sudan, but budget cuts have forced the agency to focus efforts on the 5 million most in need, of whom it has recently scaled up to reach 4 million people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even then, the organization, the UN\u2019s largest by budget, is forced to make difficult decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Tawila, North Darfur, the makeshift home to about 1 million people, the agency is able to reach everyone monthly but with only a half ration that covers two weeks\u2019 food, Skau said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not \u2060clear how they really are surviving the other two weeks,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In El-Obeid, the central Sudanese city where about 1 million and counting \u200chave sought refuge since the start of the war in April \u200b2023, the agency is only able to provide help \u200cto those who arrived in the past several months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are providing, but less and less. A year \u200cago it was better because of resources,\u201d Skau said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
agency recently began providing aid in the city of Al-Fashir, once home to 1 million people, where an RSF attack last year, \u201cbore the hallmarks of genocide,\u201d according to investigators. Skau said, \u201cthere is little sign of life having returned.\u201d<\/p>\n
His organization is not the only one struggling as major donors reduce aid. The \u200cInternational Organization for Migration said on Monday that emergency relief supplies for hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the war could run out within weeks \u2060unless donors step in \u2060with urgent funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The UN agency said supplies of shelter materials, sanitation items and emergency household goods are expected to run out by the end of September. The aid system itself can only keep functioning until December without more money.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aid groups like IOM are struggling with funding shortfalls after the Trump administration \u2014 the US was previously the world\u2019s biggest aid donor \u2014 cut billions of dollars in foreign assistanceto UN agencies and charities over the past year. Other major donor countries have also cut aid budgets, citing tight finances and higher defense spending.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe simply can\u2019t turn our back on the people of Sudan,\u201d IOM Director General Amy Pope said in a statement, adding: \u201cThe entire humanitarian system could collapse within weeks if we don\u2019t act now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
IOM says 8.6 million people remain displaced within Sudan, while another 4.9 million have returned to their homes. The agency says it \u200bneeds $15 million to keep the aid pipeline running \u200bfor the rest of the year, supporting about 305,000 people. Without it, more than 100 humanitarian organizations would struggle to quickly deliver lifesaving aid.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n