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UN PhotoWFP / SUDAN EMERGENCY RESPONSE
STORY: WFP / SUDAN EMERGENCY RESPONSE
TRT: 2:42
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: APRIL – JUNE 2024, SUDAN, CHAD, KENYA
23 MAY 2024, TINE, CHAD
1.Various shots, currently the only open cross-border route into the Darfur region is from Tine, Chad. Over 1 million people received assistance via the Adre, Chad to West Darfur route when it was open last year between August and December but, Intensified fighting in El Fasher is preventing trucks from moving into North Darfur’s capital city.
23 APRIL 2024, PORT SUDAN
2.Various shots, camp for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Port Sudan.
A recent analysis conducted by UNICEF, WFP and WHO highlights that the ongoing hostilities are worsening the drivers of child malnutrition. These include a lack of access to nutritious food, safe drinking water and sanitation, and increased risk of disease. The situation is compounded by massive population displacement, as large numbers of people flee the conflict.
23 APRIL 2024, PORT SUDAN
3. Various shots, a woman who escaped the fighting in Khartoum shows photos of the aftermath of attacks in her neighborhood.
05 MAY 2024, PHILIPPE NUTRITION CENTRE, PORT SUDAN
4. Various shots, children being tested for malnutrition with Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUACs) test at a nutrition Centre. The red in the armbands indicates the baby is severely malnourished and needs to be hospitalized. Child malnutrition in Sudan is at emergency levels. Nearly 3.7 million children face acute malnutrition this year, with 730,000 projected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition. The situation has deteriorated over recent months, with no sign of abating due to continued conflict and severely hindered humanitarian access.
06 JUNE 2024, NAIROBI, KENYA
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Dunford, WFP East Africa Regional Director:
“The situation in Sudan is a catastrophe. The country is facing a hunger and malnutrition crisis. The World Food Programme is doing everything it can to scale its operation. We aim to reach up to 5 million people. But even that will not be enough. Unless we have access. And more importantly, unless there is an end to the conflict, we simply will not be able to reach all of the people who need support now.”
02 MAY 2024, PHILIPPE NUTRITION CENTRE, PORT SUDAN
6. Various shots, set-up Majedah Adam
Majedah fled the fighting in Khartoum when a bomb landed in front of house. She had been in Port Sudan for about a week when her youngest daughter became weak and was unable to walk. Majedah took her to the nutrition centre where she tested positive for moderate acute malnutrition and began treatment. This is her third visit to the nutrition centre and is on her way to recovery.
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Majedah Adam:
“We stayed in Port Sudan for about a week and then my daughter fell sick. I had no idea what was happening to her, whether it was an infection or malaria or just a fever. People told me to take her to the health centre. So after settling in the camp I took her to the health centre. There they tested her for malnutrition, gave her nutritional peanut paste and told me she was very weak.”
8. Various shots, Majedah treats her daughter for malnutrition with nutritional peanut paste provided WFP received at the nutrition centre.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is urgently expanding its emergency food and nutrition assistance in war-torn Sudan amid the looming threat of famine, as conditions for civilians deteriorate and fighting intensifies in battle zones like El Fasher and Khartoum.
The UN food agency is scaling up to provide life-saving food and nutrition assistance to an additional 5 million people by the end of this year, doubling the number of people WFP had planned to support at the start of 2024. Hunger is deepening in Sudan and in neighbouring countries to which millions of people have fled, creating a hunger crisis that could become the world’s largest.
“Sudan is in the grip of widespread hunger and malnutrition. WFP continues to expand its food and nutrition assistance to reach millions more people who are living through the daily horrors of war. The situation is already catastrophic and has the potential to worsen further unless support reaches all those affected by conflict,” said Michael Dunford, WFP’s Regional Director for Eastern Africa.
As part of the scale up of assistance, WFP will provide support in cash to 1.2 million people in 12 states. This also gives a vital boost to local markets and food producers. WFP is also increasing how much food or cash it provides to people facing the most severe levels of hunger – more than two million people across more than 40 hunger hotspots identified by WFP. Certain communities in these areas – mostly in regions where fighting is ongoing, like the Darfurs, Kordofans, Khartoum and Gezira – are at a high-risk of slipping into famine-like conditions if they do not receive urgent and sustained support.
“The situation in Sudan is not so much forgotten as neglected. It is already the largest displacement crisis in the world, and it has the potential to become the world’s largest hunger crisis. As global leaders focus elsewhere, it is not receiving the necessary attention and support to avert a nightmare scenario for the people of Sudan. The world cannot claim it doesn’t know how bad the situation is in Sudan or that urgent action is needed,” said Dunford.
WFP is working around the clock to expand access and open new humanitarian corridors to get food supplies moving to communities in all parts of the country – across frontlines from eastern Sudan via Dabbah in Northern State, from Kosti into the Kordofans, and across borders from Chad, Egypt and South Sudan. WFP is also pre-positioning food at key border crossings and along supply routes because the imminent rainy season will make roads in the Darfurs and Kordofans impassable.
Additionally, WFP is working with smallholder farmers, many displaced by conflict, to boost wheat production. The first harvest supported through this programme – financed by the African Development Bank – gave 170,000 farmers climate-adapted wheat seeds and fertilizer, boosting their production by up to 70 percent over the last year and offering them a vital safety net as Sudan’s lean season begins.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing war, humanitarian agencies are struggling to support everyone in need. Food security is drastically deteriorating and could hit levels not seen in Sudan since the early 2000s. Famine-like conditions are caused not only by a lack of food, but also a lack of medical care and clean water – all a devastating reality for Sudan’s population. People in Sudan are resorting to desperate measures like eating grass and wild leaves just to survive. Malnutrition among children in Sudan has also hit shocking levels, leaving an entire generation at risk. Children are already dying of malnutrition-related causes.
WFP has provided assistance to over 6.7 million people in all of Sudan’s 18 states since the conflict started in April 2023.
WFP urgently needs over US$200 million to continue delivering life-saving assistance through the rest of the year.
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