240,000 refugees in South Sudan to lose UN food aid

UN food and nutrition assistance for the most vulnerable 240,000 refugees in South Sudan will end within weeks unless urgent funding arrives, the World Food Programme and UNHCR said Friday.

The agencies said the final assistance for those refugees will be provided in September, cutting off what they called a lifeline for people already living on the edge. They said the group represents the last remaining refugees out of 650,000 who had been receiving food support across the country.

The warning comes as up to 3,000 refugees and returnees arrive from Sudan each week seeking food, shelter and safety, adding pressure to already stretched humanitarian resources.

Adham Effendi, WFP's deputy country director for South Sudan, said from Juba that needs were rising while resources were running thin. He said food assistance for around 180,000 internally displaced people would also cease from October.

Overall, 7.8 million people face acute food insecurity in South Sudan and 2.2 million children are acutely malnourished, WFP said. The agency said it needs $37 million for its refugee response and has a $258 million shortfall for the rest of 2026, threatening support for 4.2 million food-insecure people across South Sudan.

UNHCR said it has secured only 28 percent of the $286 million needed this year to sustain core assistance for nearly four million people.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 but soon fell into civil war and remains affected by poverty, corruption and insecurity. A 2018 power-sharing deal between President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar has been unravelling since last year, with recent clashes bringing the country back toward the brink of civil war.