Rhino: Agencies – The World Food Program (WFP) warned on Friday that it faces a funding shortfall that could within weeks affect its ability to provide support to those facing severe food shortages in Sudan, at a time when donor countries are cutting back on donations and funding for humanitarian programs.

The UN program said it is $698 million short of the nearly $800 million it has requested from donors to help seven million people between May and September.

WFP warned that it would face shortages of cereals, pulses and ready meals, for example, from May, amid a growing trend of donor countries reducing funding for humanitarian operations.

WFP noted that food rations in areas at risk of famine have been reduced to 70 percent of the usual rations.

“We emphasize the need to ensure the flow of funding at a very critical time when we are entering the rainy season and also the hungry season in Sudan, when the conflict is escalating and displacement is increasing,” Samantha Chatterjee, emergency coordinator at the Food Program’s Sudan office, told reporters via video link from Port Sudan.

The WFP said it is mobilizing support for people in need across the country, including some 450,000 people displaced from Zamzam camp in North Darfur after the RSF took control of it this month.

It added that it provided assistance to nearly four million people across Sudan in March, the highest number in a single month since the conflict began, and that it can now reach more areas after overcoming bureaucratic challenges and security risks.

The program noted that more truckloads of aid are expected to arrive in the next few days.