UN agencies: Over 650,000 refugees in South Sudan risk losing food aid access within weeks due to funding shortfall

South Sudan faces one of the world’s worst hunger crises, the World Food Programme and the UN refugee agency said.

“This is not a future scenario. It is sadly a reality that will hold within weeks,” Adham Effendi, WFP’s deputy country director in South Sudan, told reporters from Juba.

UNHCR Deputy Representative Mesfin Degefu said that ‌if funding does not materialize, no refugees in South Sudan will be receiving food assistance from October.

UNHCR, which has received only 28 percent of the $286 million it requires this year, said the funding squeeze also threatened efforts to help refugees become self-reliant through farming, vocational training and other livelihood programs.