European Commission Tops Up Contribution To WFP Sudan

The funds will provide much-needed food assistance to displaced people and other vulnerable groups across the country.  This donation brings ECHO’s total contribution this year to WFP Sudan to €13,994,000 (US$ 19.1 million).

“We are deeply grateful to ECHO for this added contribution coming at a time when Sudan is in the middle of the lean season, when food insecurity peaks among vulnerable people,” said WFP Sudan Country Director Adnan Khan.  

In 2014, WFP plans to assist 4.1 million people across Sudan, of whom 3.2 million live in the conflict-affected region of Darfur. ECHO’s contribution will be used to support WFP’s operations in Darfur particularly through cash and vouchers that benefit half a million people.  The contribution will also support WFP’s programmes to improve the poor nutritional status of more than 182,000 children, pregnant women and nursing mothers in Darfur.  

Beyond the Darfur region, ECHO’s contribution will help to assist some 80,800 children, pregnant women and nursing mothers in Kassala, Red Sea and South Kordofan states. It will also support some 38,350 refugees in Kassala state, 149,500 vulnerable people in South Kordofan and another 35,000 internally displaced people in North Kordofan through food voucher programmes.  

“We are deeply concerned with the rising insecurity across the Darfur region which has led to the displacement of more than 400,000 people in the first half of 2014, with 260,000 yet to return to their homes. Elevated malnutrition rates and the grim food security outlook in the months ahead remind us that Sudan, especially the conflict-affected region of Darfur and the states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan should not be forgotten,” said Claus Sorensen, Director General of the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department.  

ECHO is the third largest donor to WFP in Sudan, one of the agency’s largest and most complex operations, providing food assistance to people suffering from conflict, displacement and chronic under-nourishment in Darfur, as well as in the east and border areas to the south.

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WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food in emergencies and working with communities to build resilience. In 2013, WFP assisted more than 80 million people in 75 countries.

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For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):

Amor Almagro, WFP/Khartoum, Tel. +249 183248001 (ext. 2114), Mob. +249 912174853

Abdulaziz Abdulmomin, WFP/Khartoum, Tel. +249 183248001 (ext. 2123), Mob. +249 912167055