Two million people in Sudan, where aid was halted after a coup in October, now have “severe food insecurity” due to the World Food Programme’s release of $100 million on Thursday.
According to a statement from the bank, the cash would help offer an “emergency safety net” as famine in the country of northeast Africa worsens due to “a bad harvest and rising worldwide food costs.”
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, grain prices skyrocketed.
“The funds will be channeled solely through the WFP to scale up the food security response and provide direct support to the most vulnerable people of Sudan,” the bank said.
More than two million individuals in need throughout 11 of Sudan’s 18 states will receive “cash transfers and food” as a result of the assistance.
According to UN estimates, a third of Sudanese people require humanitarian aid, and by September, 18 million people—nearly half the country’s population—will face grave famine.
Sudan, one of the world’s poorest nations, is engulfed in an economic crisis that has worsened since the army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan-led coup last year.
The World Bank cut off crucial aid after the coup, and the bank announced on Thursday that the “halt of disbursements” to the Khartoum administration “remains in effect”.
Inflation is approaching 200 percent, the currency is in free fall and the price of bread has increased tenfold since the coup.
Two children in North Darfur’s problematic western region “died from hunger-related reasons” last month, according to the humanitarian organization Save the Children, which called this “an awful harbinger of what is to come.”
This week, the UN also issued a warning, noting that its $1.9 billion assistance response plan “is only 20 percent financed.”
Prior to the coup, foreign aid made up about $2 billion, or almost 40% of the state budget.
