Women subdividing their food ration at food distribution center in Ulang County Upper Nile State - | Credit | WFP

The United Nations World Food Program has announced that it will briefly suspend food assistance for over 100,000 IDPs due to funding shortages.

According to a statement issued today, the suspension of food aid will last three months, starting in October.

The areas that will be affected are in Juba, Bor and Wau – where the UN food agency is taking care of 106,000 vulnerable people.

In the statement, the Representative and Country Director of WFP in South Sudan – Matthew Hollingworth – said:

“We are forced to take these painful decisions and stretch our limited resources to meet the critical needs of people who were on the brink of starvation and now risk slipping back into catastrophe if their access to food diminishes.

For the next four months, WFP reveals that it requires an additional $154 million to provide food assistance in sufficient quantities.

WFP is prioritizing its emergency, lifesaving food assistance in 10 hard-to-reach counties where people are in emergency or catastrophic levels of hunger including Pibor, Akobo, Tonj North, Tonj South, Tonj East, Aweil South, Twic East, Duk and Ayod.

The three-month suspension is part of a broader reduction in food assistance that WFP announced in April across all camps. It affects 700,000 refugees and internally displaced people who now receive half the caloric contents of a WFP food ration.

A full ration provides 2,100 kilocalories per person and includes cereals, pulses, vegetable oil and salt. Prior to implementing the cuts WFP and partners ran a campaign to prepare affected communities.