An estimated 650,000 refugees and asylum seekers in South Sudan are already surviving on half-rations, but face the possible loss of all food and other assistance within weeks, due to severe funding shortfalls. At the current funding levels, all assistance will end in September, according to an August 14 joint statement from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN’s World Food Program (WFP). Some $37 million is needed to keep people fed through December. This funding shortfall comes at the worst time when the rainy season causes food to become more scarce, market prices rise and flooded or degraded roads make humanitarian access increasingly difficult.
About 3,000 new refugees arrive every week in South Sudan, consisting mostly of people fleeing fighting in Sudan. These refugees are already living on the edge, but officials fear that many may attempt to return to combat zones out of desperation. South Sudan faces one of the world’s worst hunger crises with over half of the country’s population (about 7.8 million people) experiencing acute food insecurity, while 2.2 million children are acutely malnourished. According to news reports families are already reducing meals, selling belongings, withdrawing children from school and taking on debt to survive. Since the beginning of the fighting in Sudan, About 1.4 million refugees have entered South Sudan, yet despite its own poverty and other difficulties, South Sudan has never turned-away a refugee.
