Africa
Sudan: WFP chief Luke Lindberg warns funding cuts are deepening hunger after first field mission
WFP Executive Director Luke Lindberg says funding cuts are worsening hunger in Sudan, where the agency now reaches just over three million people and needs $520 million.
The head of the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that funding cuts are making Sudan’s hunger crisis worse, after his first field mission to the country since taking up the post, UN News reported on 12 November.
Executive Director Luke Lindberg said he met families displaced by the fighting who are struggling to feed their children. According to UN News, he called for an end to the fighting and for greater international support. “People facing acute hunger have three unfortunate choices: rebel, migrate or starve,” he said.
Aid scaled back
UN News said WFP was providing food assistance to more than four million people in August, including 880,000 in areas at risk of famine. Funding cuts have since forced the agency to scale back. It now reaches just over three million people, and an estimated 900,000 vulnerable people have lost their food assistance, according to the same report.
The report adds that insecurity, blocked roads and flood damage are further hampering deliveries as the conflict intensifies. UN News describes Sudan as facing one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with millions displaced since civil war erupted in 2023 and famine widespread.
What WFP is asking for
WFP says it urgently needs $520 million to provide food and nutrition assistance to 5.4 million people through April 2027. Lindberg said the agency has teams on the ground and “stands ready to scale our assistance” with additional resources.
“In the simplest of terms, peace opens the door to food while conflict opens the door to hunger,” he said, according to UN News.
Lindberg described WFP as “the only hope” for many people in “a time of unprecedented conflict”, UN News reported. The agency’s own figures on the number of people reached and the funding gap are WFP’s assessment and have not been independently verified in the report.
Earlier coverage
Geopolitiki has reported on the war’s humanitarian toll in recent days, including a UN warning that warehouses are empty and 15.4 million people need shelter, and UNICEF’s account of daily drone strikes on power stations. Both are covered in Sudan: UN agencies say warehouses are empty and 15.4 million need shelter, with only one in ten reached and Sudan: UNICEF says drones hit a power station every day in late October, with strikes from up to 1,500 km away.
Source: UN News, 12 November 2026.
