WFP warns hunger crisis looms for millions of Sudanese refugees as funds dry up

June 30, 2025 (NAIROBI) – Millions of Sudanese refugees face a deepening hunger crisis as critical funding shortages force the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) to slash life-saving food assistance, the agency warned on Monday.

More than four million people have fled to seven neighbouring countries since the conflict in Sudan erupted in April 2023. The WFP said its aid, a lifeline for families arriving malnourished and traumatised, could grind to a halt in several of these nations within months.

“This is a full-blown regional crisis that’s playing out in countries that already have extreme levels of food insecurity and high levels of conflict,” said Shaun Hughes, WFP’s Emergency Coordinator for the Sudan Regional Crisis. “Without additional funding, we will be forced to make further cuts to food assistance.”

The agency is urgently appealing for just over $200 million to sustain its regional refugee response for the next six months.

The cuts are already being felt across the region. In Uganda, some vulnerable refugees are receiving less than a quarter of their required daily calories. In Chad, which hosts almost a quarter of all refugees from Sudan, rations will be reduced in the coming months without new funding.

WFP’s support for refugees in the Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Libya is at risk of stopping altogether. In Egypt, where around 1.5 million Sudanese have sought refuge, assistance has been repeatedly cut, and the WFP fears a total halt in aid by August 2025 if no new funds are received.

Children are bearing the brunt of the crisis, with Global Acute Malnutrition rates among young refugees in reception centres in Uganda and South Sudan already exceeding emergency thresholds, the agency said.

“Refugees from Sudan are fleeing for their lives and yet are being met with more hunger, despair, and limited resources on the other side of the border,” Hughes said.

The WFP has scaled up its operations inside Sudan to reach over four million people a month. It requires an additional $575 million for its life-saving operations within the country.

Hughes stressed that a permanent solution lies beyond aid.

“Ultimately, humanitarian support alone will not put an end to conflict and forced displacement – political and global diplomatic action is what’s urgently needed to end the fighting so that peace and stability can return,” he said.