The World Food Programme could be forced to sharply cut food aid to Sudan within weeks because of a funding shortfall, its acting chief said on Monday, as 20 million people in the war-torn country face acute hunger.“Our operations are completely underfunded and there is a risk that we will have to scale back quite significantly in the next few weeks unless more funding is being provided,” Carl Skau told reporters in New York after an eight-day visit to the US.WFP needs just under $300 million to sustain its current operations in Sudan, Mr Skau said. The agency has received about $206 million so far this year, compared with $645 million last year, as humanitarian agencies struggle with a wider decline in donor funding.Sudan remains the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Mr Skau said, with 14 million people displaced and about five million facing emergency levels of hunger. About 200,000 people are at catastrophic levels of food shortage, he said.WFP reaches between four million to five million people each month, including up to 2.5 million in some of the hardest-to-reach areas, but funding shortages are limiting how much assistance it can provide.In Tawila, Darfur, where nearly one million people are now sheltering, WFP is providing food to about 950,000 people each month but can afford only half rations.“We are now delivering to the entire population, to some 950,0...
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