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, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday.

Without a breakthrough, food and nutrition assistance for the most vulnerable 240,000 refugees across the country will end in September, cutting off a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of people already living on the edge. These are the last remaining refugee families of the 650,000 who had been receiving food support across the country.

The consequences of an interruption in critical aid would be “immediate and long-lasting”, the agencies warned, including heightened risks of malnutrition, and exploitation and abuse of women and children.

The warning comes as conflict across the region continues to force people to flee across borders into neighbouring countries in search of food, shelter and safety. In South Sudan, up to 3,000 refugees and returnees continue to arrive from Sudan each week, placing further pressure on already overstretched 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 in a press statement. Effendi also spoke Friday from Juba at a UN press briefing in Geneva.

“We are already hearing from refugees who are reducing meals, selling their belongings, withdrawing children from school, and taking on debt to survive. These are coping mechanisms that can quickly evolve into serious, long-term protection concerns,” said Mesfin Degefu, UNHCR Deputy Representative in South Sudan, at the Geneva briefing.

Immediate $37 million funding gap

 WFP faces an immediate $37 million funding gap for its South Sudan refugee response and an overall funding shortfall of $158 million for the remainder of 2026 – threatening lifesaving support for 4.2 million food-insecure people across the country. Meanwhile, UNHCR has secured only 28% of the $286 million needed this year to sustain core protection and assistance for nearly four million refugees, internally displaced persons, returnees, and vulnerable host communities, the agencies said at the Friday briefing.

This funding crisis is unfolding against the backdrop of one of the world’s deepest hunger emergencies. Over 7.8 million people across South Sudan – more than half the population – are facing high levels of acute food insecurity, while 2.2 million children are acutely malnourished. Despite the needs, donor cutbacks meant that WFP has been forced to limit  assistance to only the most vulnerable refugee families, who are receiving just 50% of a full food ration.

The anticipated cut in critical support comes at the height of the rainy season when food becomes scarcer, market prices rise and flooded or degraded roads make humanitarian access increasingly difficult. Many refugee families are already eating fewer and smaller meals, borrowing money to buy food, selling what little they own, and cutting spending on health, 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 Degefu. “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.”

More than 1.4 million refugees and returnees have crossed into South Sudan since war erupted in Sudan in 2023. Despite its own deep humanitarian and development challenges, South Sudan has continued to uphold its open-door policy for refugees.

Image Credits: © WFP/Gabriela Vivacqua.