SPECIAL FEATURE
Egypt
Libya
Red Sea
Port Sudan
Merowe
North Darfur
Chad
Sudan
Eritrea
Omdurman
Khartoum
Kassala
Qadarif
Al Fasher
El Obeid
El Geneina
Zalingei
Nyala
Ad-Damazin
for wheat in Sudan is late October to early November, and the fertilizer prices were so high that smallholder farmers simply couldn’t afford them. The WFP partnered with the African Development Bank to subsidize and distribute fertilizers to offset the impact of those high prices. OFQ : How can development banks help on all these fronts? What would provide the biggest impact for the most vulnerable communities in Sudan? LK: There are several ways to help. For example, with the African Development Bank we’re not only subsidizing fertilizers, but also providing tools for farmers and improving storage infrastructure. A joined-up response. The WFP is also targeting funding on road and rail infrastructure. Together with the Sudan Railways Corporation, the WFP carried out a detailed assessment of the rail network, looking at which areas and lines need to be rehabilitated. The cost was put at US$60 million to get these lines up and running again and to have a connection from Port Sudan to Wad Madani, which is a key logistics point for food distribution into South Sudan. So far, the WFP has built one short railway line from Port Sudan, which enabled us to take millions of tonnes of food straight off cargo ships. That’s also important because the WFP is the lead agency for logistics for the humanitarian and development community, so it also falls within our mandate to work on things like this. The WFP is about so much more than food alone.
Central African Republic
Ethiopia
South Sudan
Crisis in Sudan: The impact on food aid After losing several staff in April, the WFP and other UN organizations moved their operations from Khartoum, in central Sudan, to the relative safety of Port Sudan. The outbreak of armed conflict means food aid has stalled to landlocked South Sudan. It has also affected several other parts of Sudan, including the western desert region of Darfur, which borders Chad, where warfare has killed as many as 300,000 people and displaced 2.7 million since 2003.
The number of people likely to be suffering from acute food insecurity in Sudan may rise to over 19 million
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