Port Sudan Receives Food Aid Amid WFP Warning of “Catastrophic Hunger”
(AWP) - Battles raging in Sudan have worsened humanitarian conditions, especially with a decline of support offered by organisations to the displaced people, whose numbers have seen a sharp increase due to the escalation of fighting in the city of Wad Madani in al-Jazirah State.
In a bid to ease the suffering of affected civilians, the Sudanese American Physicians Association (SAPA) has launched an initiative to distribute food baskets to over 1,300 displaced families in various sheltering centres in the city of Port Sudan in Red Sea State.
SAPA said its initiative aims to bridge the severe food shortage at sheltering centres in Port Sudan, which are overcrowded with displaced people from Khartoum and Wad Madani, in addition to refugees from neighbouring countries.
Salem Baaoum, SAPA representative in Red Sea State, said, “An initiative was launched today to distribute food baskets for 1,311 families in sheltering centres and host communities in Red Sea State. We began with the Sea Ports Authority, which hosts more than nine communities. Aid was distributed to all families in the port authority and other centres.”
Displaced people say they lack many basic needs inside the sheltering centres.
Layla Deng, a displaced Sudanese woman, said, “We thank all the organisations and supporting bodies. The needs are not for food only. We also have issues with water, and health problems such as epidemics that have spread here. We also need help for those.”
Meanwhile, a grant of flour offered by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSRelief) was distributed to displaced people in Port Sudan.
The World Food Programme (WFP) warned earlier this month that parts of Sudan are at risk of slipping into “catastrophic hunger” next year if the UN program is unable to expand access and offer regular food aid to the inhabitants trapped in conflict hotspots like Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), more than 6.7 million Sudanese have been displaced in and outside Sudan since the outbreak of war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April.
The conflict and economic deterioration have led to 17.7 million people at risk of hunger, in addition to nearly 7,000 people contracting cholera.