The European Union (EU) will be providing €9.5 million in humanitarian funding to the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) in South Sudan to provide food and nutrition support thousands of hungry people in the country.

The contribution will provide life-saving food and nutrition assistance to more than 700,000 vulnerable people. This includes people who had fled their homes due to the crisis in the country, malnourished pregnant and nursing women, children under the age of five and refugees living in South Sudan. Of this, 520,000 people are expected to receive cash assistance to buy food and basic commodities from local markets. This will enable different households to acquire what they need the most. It will also help the rural economies by injecting much-needed cash into them.

“Millions of people in South Sudan need food assistance,” said Christos Stylianides, the European Union’s Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management. “With this aid package, we are helping the most vulnerable, particularly women and children.”

“We are very grateful to the European Union for this contribution which comes at a critical time, Although the food security situation has slightly improved, there is an urgent need to continue providing life-saving support to people at risk of hunger. Food assistance saves lives and can help build communities’ resilience to allow them to sustain themselves in the future,” said Ute Klamert, WFP Assistant Executive Director for Partnerships & Advocacy.

There is a food crisis and hunger in South Sudan. About 4.5 million people are in need of food and nutrition support until the end of the year. This number is expected to go higher, up to 5.5 million people in January 2020 and even further more during the course of the year as food reserves stored by the various households from their subsistence farming start to deplete.

The European Union is a long-standing partner of WFP assistance in South Sudan. The latest funding brings the European Union’s total contribution to WFP’s activities in South Sudan to US$123.8 million (€113.6 million) in the past five years.

Culled from www.wfp.org