JUBA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- More than 650,000 refugees and asylum seekers in South Sudan face a severe disruption to lifesaving food and nutrition assistance due to critical funding shortfalls, UN agencies warned Friday.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said that without immediate funding, they will only have enough supplies to feed 240,000 refugees by September, leaving hundreds of thousands who fled war and famine with nowhere else to turn.
"Without immediate and urgent funding, the final food and nutrition assistance for the most vulnerable 240,000 refugees will be provided in September, cutting off a lifeline for hundreds of thousands already living on the edge. These are the last remaining refugees of the 650,000 who had been receiving food support across the country," the UN agencies said in a joint statement issued in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
"Every week, thousands more refugees and returnees continue to arrive from Sudan with almost nothing, many exhausted, hungry and in urgent need of protection and assistance," said Mesfin Degefu, UNHCR deputy representative in South Sudan.
UNHCR and WFP warned that these impending aid cuts arrive at the peak of the rainy season, a critical period when food is scarce, market prices spike, and flooded or degraded roads severely hamper humanitarian deliveries.
Currently, WFP faces an immediate 37 million U.S. dollars funding gap for its refugee response and an overall shortfall of 258 million dollars for the remainder of 2026, a deficit that threatens lifesaving support for 4.2 million food-insecure people across the country. ■