The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a contribution of US$4.5 million from the Government of Japan to provide life-saving food assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sudan. The funding will enable WFP to purchase 3,600 MT of sorghum to support 130,000 IDPs in Blue Nile, South Kordofan and Darfur states for the next four months.
“We are extremely grateful for this generous funding from the Government of Japan to support women, men and children who have been driven from their homes by conflict,” said Eddie Rowe, WFP’s Representative and Country Director in Sudan. “Chronic funding shortages are forcing WFP to reduce food rations even for the most vulnerable such as IDPs and refugees. We appeal to donors to help restore full rations.”
Japan’s contribution comes at a time when the combined effects of conflict, extreme weather, economic and political crises, poor harvests and rising costs of food, energy and fertilizer, caused in part by the conflict in Ukraine, have left over 15 million people food insecure in Sudan according to WFP’s Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment (CFSVA). The assessment further warns that this number could rise to 18 million – or 40 percent of the population – by September, as families struggle to cope through the lean season.
“We think it is necessary for us to help Sudan respond to the current food crisis through WFP which provides life-saving food assistance to vulnerable populations, particularly IDPs in Sudan,” said H.E. Mr. Hattori Takashi, Ambassador of Japan to Sudan. “This contribution from the people of Japan comes as part of our responsibility as friends of the Sudanese people towards the improvement of their food security amidst an ongoing global food crisis.”
In 2022, WFP has so far provided food and nutrition assistance to over 4.8 million people in Sudan including 1.7 million IDPs who continue to receive much needed emergency assistance through in-kind food and cash. However, due to chronic funding shortfalls, WFP is only able to provide half rations for all IDPs and refugees.
The Government of Japan is a long-standing partner of WFP in Sudan. In 2020 and 2021, Japan contributed a total of US$4.5 million to WFP for various initiatives including support for people whose livelihoods were affected by locust invasions, emergency nutrition assistance for infants, mothers and pregnant women in West and Central Darfur, emergency food assistance for refugees fleeing conflict in northern Ethiopia and capacity strengthening for the delivery of social protection services.
