The Backstory: A broken doll in broken Sudan
Story | 1 October 2024
Emergency
Sudan
- 25.6 million
- people facing acute hunger
- 13
- areas at risk of famine
- 9.8 million
- people supported by WFP since conflict began
Famine has been confirmed in a camp sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Sudan’s North Darfur Region.
The declaration for Zamzam camp is a result of conflict, displacement and humanitarian access constraints.
A further 13 areas of the country are ‘at risk of famine’ in the coming months, according to latest analysis. Nearly 14 million more people are facing acute hunger than before conflict erupted in April 2023 and hunger-related deaths being recorded.
A total of 25.6 million people are facing acute hunger, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – the global standard for measuring food insecurity.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is in a race against time to stop famine in its tracks, rapidly scaling up our emergency response to save more lives. We have supported nearly 10 million people since conflict began in April 2023.
WFP has been moving food and nutrition assistance to Chad’s Adre border since the authorities announced the lifeline crossing into Darfur would reopen in August after six months. However, the crossing is due to close again on 15 November.
We urgently need a massive increase in funding to ramp up assistance at the scale required to avert famine. As the war in Sudan rages on, more and more people are being pushed into catastrophic levels of hunger.
What the World Food Programme is doing to respond to the Sudan emergency
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Emergency response
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WFP is supporting community kitchens in areas of Khartoum through local partners, with a goal of distributing up to 100,000 hot meals every month. WFP is also expanding its cash-based assistance, including the roll-out of a self-registration pilot for cash-based assistance for residents of Khartoum.
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Resilience
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WFP manages activities designed to improve livelihoods and build resilience, focused on the relatively safe eastern state of Sudan. WFP has also resumed the African Development Bank-funded Sudan Emergency Wheat Production Project in Northern, River Nile, Gezira, Kassala and White Nile states. The programme aims to increase Sudan’s domestic wheat production, which is vital to preventing hunger from rising even more.
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UNHAS
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The WFP-managed United Nations Humanitarian Air Services has established air connections between Nairobi and Port Sudan and Amman and Port Sudan, which are already transporting frontline humanitarians from 69 organizations. In 2023, UNHAS facilitated nearly 200 international flights into and out of Port Sudan, transporting around 4,000 passengers and 18.2 MT of light humanitarian cargo from May to December 2023.
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Logistics
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The WFP-led Logistics Cluster provides storage services to 9 UN agencies and NGO partners at four locations in Port Sudan, Wad Madani, Kosti, and Gedaref. Thousands of tons of humanitarian supplies are passing through these hubs.
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Emergency Telecommunications Cluster
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The Emergency Telecommunications Cluster provides connectivity services in Port Sudan, Kassala and Kosti. In Port Sudan, the Cluster is providing connectivity to around 600 users from 37 partners across 28 sites. In Kassala, the Cluster provides connectivity to 70 users from 8 partners across 4 sites.
How you can help
WFP urgently needs funding to support people whose lives have been upended by the conflict.
Donate now