The World Food Programme (WFP) has ‘partially resumed’ operations in North Darfur after more than a month’s suspension of its activities in Sudan.
The suspension followed a series of attacks and looting of all three of WFP warehouses in El Fasher late December 2021.
WFP, in a statement, noted the resumption of nutrition programmes for malnourished children, pregnant and nursing mothers as well as school meals programmes.
According to the UN programme, it was also gradually resuming general food assistance to around 362,000 refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) using cash-based transfers in Sudan.
WFP is targeting 122,600 people with nutrition support and 321,000 people with school feeding efforts this year in the country.
‘WFP’s priority is ensuring the hungriest children have food on their plates and people suffering malnutrition get the treatment they need’, WFP Country Director in Sudan, Eddie Rowe, said in the statement.
‘We hope that security conditions will allow us to continue our work and we urge all parties to continue to provide safe access for humanitarian workers and protect humanitarian assets and supplies, so that we can reach people who are in need of assistance’.
WFP however noted that it was also facing a major funding shortfall of $285 million for the next six months (March–August 2022).
Sudan has been in the midst of a political crisis since long-serving ruler Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in April 2019.
Over 50 civilians were killed and hundreds more injured by security forces since 25 October, 2021, when the military ousted Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in what was Sudan’s second coup in three years.
According to the UN, over 65,000 people have been displaced by violence perpetrated by armed groups and Arab militias in Darfur. Around 2,000 displaced Sudanese have crossed into neighbouring Chad.
Data from the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) shows that approximately 2.7 million children under five suffer from malnutrition annually, out of whom 522,000 suffer from severe acute malnutrition in Sudan.
Source: WFP
Photo source: WFP/Alice Rahmound
