JUBA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is scaling up support for people impacted by the third consecutive year of record floods that are battering South Sudan. The inundation is threatening to reverse gains made in food security as floodwaters swallow up large swaths of farmland and pastures, destroy crops and drown precious livestock and entire villages.

More than 750,000 people 31 counties across eight states have been affected by the floods including 365,000 who have been displaced. In Unity State alone, local authorities indicate that almost 90 percent of the state is under water, leaving very few safe havens for displaced people.

“The climate emergency is very real in South Sudan, causing unspeakable suffering, destroying people’s livelihoods and pushing them deeper into poverty and hunger,” said Adeyinka Badejo, acting Country Director of the U.N. World Food Programme in South Sudan. “The U.N. World Food Programme is re-prioritizing and redirecting its resources to respond to this new crisis. We are delivering vital food and supplies by air to people in areas that have been cut off by floods.”

The U.N. World Food Programme is reaching 300,000 people which is 40 percent of those heavily impacted by recurring floods in South Sudan with food and nutrition assistance. Additionally, communities are being supported to adapt and recover from climate shocks through the construction of dykes to control floodwaters and protect farmlands and people, as well as repairing roads to connect people to local markets and essential services.

The scale of devastation has seriously impacted people’s livelihoods and food production, significantly jeopardizing their food security and nutrition with the harvest this year likely to be lower than last year. The catastrophic floods come on top of continuing conflict, economic crisis and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While scaling up its emergency assistance for the most vulnerable, the U.N. World Food Programme is also working with communities to create long-term solutions that help them prepare for, respond to and recover from climate shocks, such as building and repairing dykes to control floodwaters and roads to improve people’s access to basic services.

“In South Sudan, the U.N. World Food Programme works across all pathways of emergency relief and early recovery and development to create an enabling environment for the people of South Sudan and equip them with the tools to build a future for generations to come,” said Badejo.

Despite efforts to support community resilience to shocks, humanitarian needs in South Sudan continue to outpace resources and the U.N. World Food Programme is at risk of running out of funds to continue its vital emergency operations and livelihoods programs. For the next six months, the U.N. World Food Programme needs $568 million to maintain its operations.

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The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.  We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

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JUBA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) will suspend food assistance for more than 100,000 displaced people in parts of South Sudan for three months starting in October as part of a prioritization exercise driven by funding shortages this year

While generous contributions from donors have enabled the U.N. World Food Programme to reach millions in need with lifesaving assistance, many vulnerable people living in crisis areas continue to suffer from the highest levels of hunger and cannot survive without sustained food assistance.

Starting in October, 106,000 people displaced in camps in Wau, Juba and Bor South will not receive monthly food rations for the next three months and until the new year, when the U.N. World Food Programme will resume its monthly food assistance for internally displaced people in those camps from January to September 2022.

“Drastic times call for drastic measures. We are forced to take these painful decisions and stretch our limited resources to meet the critical needs of people who were on the brink of starvation and now risk slipping back into catastrophe if their access to food diminishes,” said Matthew Hollingworth, Representative and Country Director of U.N. World Food Programme in South Sudan.

“If funding levels continue to drop, we may have no choice but to make further cuts as the needs of vulnerable communities continue to outpace available resources,” said Hollingworth. For the next four months, U.N. World Food Programme requires an additional $154 million to provide food assistance in sufficient quantities.

The three-month suspension is part of a broader reduction in food assistance that the U.N. World Food Programme announced in April across all camps. It affects 700,000 refugees and internally displaced people who now receive half the caloric contents of a U.N. World Food Programme food ration. A full ration provides 2,100 kilocalories per person and includes cereals, beans, vegetable oil and salt. Prior to implementing the cuts, U.N. World Food Programme and partners ran a campaign to prepare affected communities.

The U.N. World Food Programme is prioritizing its emergency, lifesaving food assistance in 10 hard-to-reach counties where people are in emergency or catastrophic levels of hunger including Pibor, Akobo, Tonj North, Tonj South, Tonj East, Aweil South, Bor South, Twic East, Duk and Ayod.

Mothers and children between six months and two years of age who live in camps will continue to receive nutrition assistance for the prevention and treatment of malnutrition.

Food insecurity in South Sudan has increased in the last few years and currently affects more than 60 percent of the country’s population.

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The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.  We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters, and the impact of climate change.

Follow us on Twitter @WFPUSA, @wfp_southsudan and @wfp_africa

JUBA – As South Sudan marks 10 years of independence, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) reaffirm their strategic partnership to improve the lives of millions of South Sudanese and support their aspirations for a better future.

Years of conflict, displacement and environmental shocks have led to chronic hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and the loss of many lives in the world’s youngest country. The U.N. World Food Programme’s partnership with USAID continues to combat these stressors and helps establish the peace and stability that is key for the success of the nation and its people.

The U.N. World Food Programme’s efforts to mitigate the short-term effects of severe food insecurity includes delivering 661,386,787 pounds of food assistance annually to more than five million people in South Sudan. Food rations and nutritional supplements are provided for the treatment and prevention of malnutrition.

While emergency food assistance is instrumental to turn the tide on hunger, eliminating the root-cause of famine requires longer term and more complex interventions: strengthening education, nutrition, livelihood resilience, and economic empowerment.

“To help vulnerable people thrive, the U.N. World Food Programme goes beyond emergency food assistance,” said Matthew Hollingworth, Representative and Country Director of the U.N. World Food Programme in South Sudan. “We are expanding our livelihoods activities to enable families to increase their income, bring communities up to speed on the latest agronomical practices, build people’s resilience to climatic shocks, and to enable food production at scale for a more food secure South Sudan. The U.N. World Food Programme counts on the steady support of our donors to help us sustain the momentum we have built so far.”

The U.N. World Food Programme’s school meals program, which benefits more than half a million school children across all 10 states, is an investment in the future. This initiative feeds South Sudan’s young children with the aim of helping them to grow up to become self-reliant in a peaceful and more hopeful future.

The U.N. World Food Programme’s livelihoods program continues to be a great success, benefiting more than 730,000 people by allowing them to enhance their food production, store their crops more efficiently and gain business expertise when selling surplus in local markets. Maintaining and growing these programs requires the fortitude of generous donors to continue helping the farmers of South Sudan, especially as the lean season peaks this month in July and August.

Coupled with continued assistance, humanitarian interventions that create economic opportunities, such as those delivered by the U.N. World Food Programme and its partner USAID, will enable the South Sudanese people to build these pillars of long-term peace and prosperity.

“USAID deeply values its strong partnership with the U.N. World Food Programme in South Sudan and the vital assistance that partnership has been able to bring to millions of South Sudanese people over the last decade,” said McDonald Homer, USAID/South Sudan Acting Mission Director McDonald Homer.

The United States has provided the U.N. World Food Programme with over $3.1 billion in humanitarian funds since South Sudan was founded in 2011.

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The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.  We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

Follow us on Twitter @WFPUSA, @wfp_media, @wfp_southsudan and @wfp_africa