Trending 
More than 650,000 refugees and asylum seekers in South Sudan face an immediate loss of food assistance due to a severe funding shortfall, the United Nations warned on Friday.
The impending cuts threaten to worsen one of the world’s most severe hunger crises, where acute food insecurity already impacts over 7.8 million people—more than half the national population.
The crisis hits as South Sudan continues to absorb roughly 3,000 people weekly fleeing war-torn Sudan, where ongoing conflict has driven massive displacement and widespread starvation.
Without urgent new funding, the World Food Programme (WFP) will issue its final food distributions to the remaining 240,000 supported refugees in September.
“This is not a future scenario. It is sadly a reality that will hold within weeks,” WFP Deputy Country Director Adham Effendi told reporters from Juba.
UNHCR Deputy Representative Mesfin Degefu warned that if funding fails to materialise, no refugees in the country will receive food aid by October.
WFP needs $37 million to cover refugee operations through December, while UNHCR has secured only 28 per cent of its required $286 million annual budget.
The lack of resources is driving families to cut meals, sell possessions, pull children from school, and incur heavy debt to survive.
Degefu noted that women and children face heightened risks of exploitation and abuse, prompting some refugees to request assistance returning to Sudan despite unsafe conditions.
The aid reductions will also halt food support for 180,000 internally displaced people in October and cut life-saving rations for 600,000 individuals living in famine-risk areas by November, while undermining long-term programmes designed to promote refugee self-reliance.
