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In this file photo taken on May 20, 2021, the World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC. The World Bank said on October 21, 2021, |
The World Bank released $100 million Thursday for the World Food Programme to tackle โdeep food insecurityโ for two million people in Sudan, where aid was suspended following an October coup.
The funds will help provide an โemergency safety netโ amid worsening hunger in the northeast African nation โcaused by a poor harvest and rising international food pricesโ, the bank said in a statement.
Grain prices surged earlier this year following Russiaโs invasion of Ukraine.
โThe funds will be channelled solely through the WFP to scale up the food security response and provide direct support to the most vulnerable people of Sudan,โ the bank said.
The aid will provide โcash transfers and foodโ to more than two million people needing aid across 11 of Sudanโs 18 states.
The United Nations estimates that a third of Sudanese needs humanitarian aid, and warns that 18 million people โ nearly half the population โ will be pushed into extreme hunger by September.
Sudan, one of the worldโs poorest countries, is mired in an economic crisis that has deepened since last yearโs coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
After the coup, the World Bank froze vital aid, and the bank on Thursday said the โpause of disbursementsโ to the government in Khartoum โremains in effectโ.
Inflation is approaching 200 percent, the currency is in free-fall and the price of bread has increased tenfold since the coup.
Last month, aid agency Save the Children said two children in the troubled western region of North Darfur had โdied from hunger-related causesโ, which it said was โan ominous sign of what is to comeโ.
The UN has also warned this week that its aid response plan โwhich calls for $1.9 billion, is only 20 percent funded.โ
Before the coup, international aid totalled some $2 billion, some 40 percent of the state budget.
AFP