The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has issued an urgent appeal for donor funding to secure food supplies for South Sudan in advance of next year’s operations. This funding, if received by year’s end, will allow WFP to preposition food in remote, hunger-affected areas during the brief dry season, avoiding costly airdrops later in the year.
The call follows a recent WFP-FAO Hunger Hotspots report that ranks South Sudan as a top-priority country, where immediate humanitarian action is necessary to prevent widespread hunger and death. Currently, WFP lacks food supplies within South Sudan to meet next year’s needs, requiring $404 million to secure and transport food to vulnerable areas. Without these funds, the agency will face high costs to reach isolated communities by air during the rainy season.
Ich Shaun Hughes, WFP’s Acting Country Director in South Sudan, stressed that the country’s limited road infrastructure is impassable for much of the year, particularly in the hunger-prone eastern and central regions. “Every dollar spent on airdrops is a dollar not spent on food for the hungry,” Hughes said, emphasizing that early funding would allow supplies to be transported by road before heavy rains cut off access to these communities.
Due to global instability and rising humanitarian needs, WFP has had to reduce assistance to South Sudan, reaching only 2.7 million of the 7.1 million people in need this year, many of whom received only partial rations. Acute food insecurity, affecting 56% of South Sudan’s population, is expected to worsen as the 2025 lean season approaches, driven by rising food prices, economic challenges, conflict, and flooding.
