The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Thursday called for urgent support for farmers and herders in Sudan in order to help prevent a further worsening of the food security situation in the African country.
Some 3.3 million people are currently suffering from food insecurity with numbers likely to rise to 4 million in the coming months due to a combination of increased conflict and displacement in Darfur, refugee movement from neighboring South Sudan, poor harvest and spiraling food prices, said the Rome-based UN agency in a news release.
In some areas of Sudan, existing crisis levels of food insecurity are expected to deteriorate to emergency levels in the coming few weeks, bringing an even higher degree of acute malnutrition with devastating consequences for vulnerable groups, it said.
"Sudan is a forgotten crisis that is only getting worse," said Abdi Adan Jama, the FAO representative in the African country. "We urgently need to ensure vulnerable herders and farmers affected by the situation are in a position to regain their livelihoods, feed their families, reduce their dependency on food aid and rebuild their lives."
"About 80 percent of Sudan's rural population relies on agriculture for their food and income, and if we do not recognize the magnitude of what is happening and act in time the situation will get much, much worse," Jama said.
FAO is calling for 19 million U.S. dollars for a series of urgent interventions targeting a total of 5.4 million people. So far it has received only 7 million dollars, leaving a funding gap of 12 million dollars. The agency plans to provide 900,000 of the most vulnerable households with livelihood-saving support.
In addition, the Food Security and Livelihoods Cluster, co-led by FAO, plans to vaccinate 11.7 million heads of livestock and ensure supplementary feeding and improved access to pasture and water, which will secure the survival of these important productive assets.
UN agencies and partners have so far received only 3.5 percent of the 995 million dollars that they requested to carry out urgent humanitarian interventions set out in the Strategic Response Plan for Sudan in 2014.
