The United States government has donated an emergency supply of 40.5 metric tons of high-energy biscuits for the World Food Program in South Sudan to respond to the humanitarian situation of the people fleeing the war in Sudan.
The biscuits will be sent to the reception centers at the borders in Renk, Aweil, Bentiu and Abyei to help sustain those arriving from Sudan. It’s meant to benefits close to 50,000 people.
Since the war broke out on April 15, 2023 in the Sudanese capital Sudan -Khartoum between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) and the Sudan Armed Forces commanded by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan over failed planned integration of forces; the fighting continued to escalate and displacing civilians both Sudan nationals and other nationalities. South Sudanese and Sudan refugees continues to cross into South Sudan at the borders on daily basis.
“We can all agree that the events in what’s going on, on the next door in Sudan are absolutely tragic and we’re seeing the fallout here in South Sudan as over 190,000 people have already arrived in places like renk. Many of these people are South Sudanese returning home,” said Mrs. Mary Ellen Mc Groarty, Country Director, World Food Program in South Sudan.
The country director said the energy food will be given to the arrivals to give them strength to keep moving as they go to their lands of origin.
“So the biscuits are really going to help us give them a little bit of support on that journey home as we try to roll out food and Nutrition Assistance both at the border and in their places of return,” Ellen said.
She stated that, “This brings the total support of the US government of the people of the United States of America to WFP in South Sudan to over 300 million this year,”
According to the US ambassador to South Sudan, Michael J Adler , the support of biscuits to refugees and returnees fleeing the conflict in Sudan is just but a little portion of a billion dollars assistance the US is providing to South Sudan.
“Our total assistance thus far is over $30 million, which in itself is but a fraction of the around $1 billion of assistance we provide to help people in South Sudan,” Adler asserted.
The UN World Food agency said the country is in a dire need of humanitarian assistance as estimated 9.4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance of which over 7.4 million people are in severe food insecurity driven by the combined shocks of the conflict in South Sudan and climate change.
