The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday that more than 650,000 refugees and asylum seekers in South Sudan risk losing access to lifesaving food, nutrition, and other assistance due to critical funding shortfalls, leaving families who fled war and hunger with nowhere else to turn. This funding crisis is unfolding against the backdrop of one of the world’s most severe hunger emergencies.
The UN agencies emphasized that, without immediate and urgent funding, the final round of food and nutrition assistance for the 240,000 most vulnerable refugees in the country will be provided in September. This will cut off a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of people who are already on the brink of survival. These are the last remaining refugee families of the 650,000 who had been receiving food support across the country.
For these families, an interruption in critical aid would have immediate and long-lasting consequences, including heightened risks of malnutrition and the exploitation and abuse of women and children. Of particular concern to UNHCR is the risk of further cross-border movement as people search for food and assistance.
This warning comes as the conflict in neighboring Sudan and the wider region continues to force people to flee to South Sudan in search of food, shelter, and safety. Up to 3,000 refugees and returnees continue to arrive in South Sudan from Sudan each week, further straining already limited humanitarian resources.
“We are seeing the devastating impact of conflicts that force people from their homes collide with a severe shortage of resources that is now making the crisis worse,” said Adham Effendi, Deputy Country Director for WFP in South Sudan.
“For refugees and host communities, food assistance is often the difference between coping and crisis. Urgent support to save lives and livelihoods is vital – to meet essential needs and reduce long-term dependence on humanitarian assistance.”
WFP faces an immediate US$37 million funding gap for its refugee response and a $258 million overall funding shortfall for the remainder of 2026, which threatens lifesaving support for some 4.2 million food-insecure people across the country.
Meanwhile, UNHCR has secured only 28 percent of the $286 million needed this year to provide core protection and assistance to nearly four million refugees, internally displaced persons, returnees, and vulnerable host communities.
More than 7.8 million people in South Sudan — over half the population — are experiencing severe food insecurity, including 2.5 million facing emergency levels (IPC4) and 73,000 facing famine conditions (IPC5). Additionally, 2.2 million children are acutely malnourished. WFP has already been forced to prioritize assistance for the most vulnerable refugee families, who are only receiving 50 percent of a full food ration.
This anticipated reduction in critical support comes during the rainy season, when food becomes scarcer, market prices rise, and flooded or degraded roads make humanitarian access increasingly difficult. Many refugee families are eating fewer and smaller meals, borrowing money to buy food, selling their few possessions, and reducing spending on health care, education, and shelter.
"Every week, thousands more refugees and returnees continue to arrive from Sudan with almost nothing, many exhausted, hungry and in urgent need of protection and assistance," said Mesfin Degefu, UNHCR Deputy Representative in South Sudan.
"At the same time, we see refugees who have been in South Sudan for many years, working to rebuild their lives and move towards greater self-reliance. Cutting assistance now undermines hard-won progress in education, livelihoods and resilience and may force refugee families to make desperate choices, including moving onward along dangerous routes to survive.”
Despite facing significant humanitarian challenges of its own, South Sudan has continued to uphold its open-door policy for refugees. Armed conflict, violence, disease, and natural disasters have devastated the lives and livelihoods of millions of people across the country. The situation has left 9.9 million people in need of life-saving assistance.
The crisis has been further intensified by the influx of over 1.4 million returnees and refugees from Sudan since the war began in the neighboring country in April 2023. Over 70 percent of these new arrivals have settled in areas already experiencing extreme resource scarcity, placing extraordinary strain on limited supplies and services.
UNHCR and WFP are jointly appealing to the international community for immediate, flexible funding to prevent the suspension of life-saving assistance and to protect families on the frontlines of this regional crisis.