The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is urgently appealing to donors to provide early funding for next year’s operations in South Sudan so the food agency can prepare food to prevent spiraling operational costs and hunger through 2025.
According to a press statement from WFP, the appeal follows the release of the WFP-FAO Hunger Hotspots report which warns that South Sudan is a country of highest concern where humanitarian action is essential to prevent starvation and death.
WFP currently has no food supplies in South Sudan to preposition for next year’s humanitarian response and needs US$404 million to frontload assistance, the statement said. Failure to do so will leave WFP reliant on expensive airdrops later in the year to reach isolated communities that are facing the most severe levels of hunger and depend on humanitarian food assistance.
“It can take months to turn pledged donor funds into food in the hands of hungry people in South Sudan. The country’s limited road networks are impassable for much of the year – particularly in the east and central parts of the country where food insecurity is highest,” said Shaun Hughes, WFP’s Acting Country Director for South Sudan.
Funds received before the end of this year will enable WFP to preposition food by road in remote hunger-hit areas during the brief dry season window from December to April.
“Airdrops are always the last resort for WFP. Every dollar spent on planes is a dollar not spent on food for hungry people. But there is a simple solution: get food to communities by road before they are cut off by heavy rain and flooding,” said Hughes.
This year WFP had to double the amount of food delivered by airdrops to meet hunger needs during the lean season, adding US$30 million to overall operational costs, because food was not in-country in time. In comparison, WFP was able to reduce airdrops by 70 percent in 2019 when prepositioning was optimized due to generous donor contributions and the timely arrival of food.
Acute food insecurity in South Sudan – where 56 percent of the population already faces crisis (IPC3) or worse levels of hunger – is likely to worsen as the 2025 lean season approaches, typically starting in May. This deterioration is driven by high food prices, a severe economic crisis, conflict and insecurity, cross-border movements from Sudan, and flooding.
Amidst global instability that is increasing humanitarian needs, WFP has been forced to reduce the number of people it reaches in South Sudan and the amount of assistance each person receives. Only 2.7 million of the 7.1 million hungry people (38 percent) received assistance through the 2024 lean season, and most have been receiving half rations. Reducing operational costs is essential to enable WFP to reach as many vulnerable people as possible.
The delivery options for humanitarian assistance in South Sudan include road, river, and airdrops. However, road transport is only feasible for a couple of months of the year, while river convoys are slow and have limited capacity. Airdrops in South Sudan can be as much as 17 times more expensive than road transport and deliver much less cargo in the same timeframe.
The lean season in South Sudan runs from May to August and is the period just before harvest when communities have the least to eat and hunger typically rises.
In 2024, the lean season was swiftly followed by significant flooding which destroyed crops and displaced entire communities. WFP extended its humanitarian assistance to reach more than 1.2 million people impacted by flooding.