WFP Funding for Sudan Falls to $206 Million Amid Hunger Crisis

After an eight-day visit to Sudan that included Darfur, World Food Programme acting executive director Carl Skau told reporters the agency's funding for the country has fallen to $206 million this year from $645 million last year. He said the gap to sustain current operations is just short of $300 million. "This year, we're about half what we were in terms of funding last year," Skau said. He said "we have (a) presence that we are not fully utilising because of the lack of funding." Almost 20 million people face hunger. WFP has focused on the 5 million most in need and recently scaled up to reach 4 million. In Tawila, North Darfur, the population rose from about 700,000 in April to close to 1 million. WFP reaches about 950,000 people monthly with only half-rations covering about two weeks of food. "It's not clear how they really are surviving the other two weeks," Skau said. He warned that in the next few weeks the risk is the agency will have to scale back even further.