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Ðǿմ«Ã½ Sudan Country Office to return to capital Khartoum after three years of war, as record hunger persists

KHARTOUM, Sudan ¡ª The Ðǿմ«Ã½ (Ðǿմ«Ã½) today announced the return of its Sudan Country Office to the capital Khartoum. The announcement was made by Carl Skau, Ðǿմ«Ã½¡¯s Deputy Executive Director, following a meeting in Khartoum with Kamil Idris, Prime Minister of Sudan. In attendance, was Abdallah Al Wardat, Ðǿմ«Ã½¡¯s new Country Director in Sudan. The agency¡¯s planned return to the capital comes three years after Ðǿմ«Ã½¡¯s former premises were looted and destroyed at the beginning of the war in 2023.

¡°Conditions in Khartoum have clearly changed since my last visit less than six months ago. I found more life and activity in the city, the airport operational, and people returning to their homes and starting to rebuild their lives,¡± said Skau. ¡°Our return to Khartoum is part of wider efforts of the United Nations to move back to the capital. As the largest UN agency in country, we are ready to support partners to deliver vital assistance.¡±

Ðǿմ«Ã½¡¯s return is pre-empted by the resumption of the Ðǿմ«Ã½-managed United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) flights to Khartoum since February. Currently, UNHAS flies three times a week to Khartoum. 

While conditions have improved in some locations of Sudan, conflict continues unabated in large swathes of the country. An estimated 19 million people are acutely food insecure, making Sudan the largest humanitarian hunger crisis in the world.

¡°Ðǿմ«Ã½ is ready to do more, but we urgently need the funding to do so,¡± said Skau. ¡°We want to reach more people with lifesaving food assistance and ensure children and mothers struggling with malnutrition can access critical nutritional supplements. And in safe and accessible areas, we feel we can help communities to rebuild their lives, get farmers back out into their fields, and enable children to return to school.¡±

Last year, Ðǿմ«Ã½ reached 12 million people with assistance in Sudan and successfully pushed back famine in several locations. The unprecedented humanitarian funding crisis impacting Ðǿմ«Ã½ and other agencies puts these fragile gains at risk. Food stocks in the country are depleting and are expected to run out within weeks. Ðǿմ«Ã½ urgently requires more than US$600 million to sustain life-saving operations for the next six months.

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The United Nations Ðǿմ«Ã½ is the world¡¯s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

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Topics

Sudan Conflicts Funding Food assistance

Contact

For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):

Philippe Kropf, Ðǿմ«Ã½/Sudan, Tel. +249 912 174 385 

Mohamed Elamin, Ðǿմ«Ã½/Sudan, Tel. +249 91 212 8974