WFP’s October country brief, released on 2 November, discloses a substantial interruption to emergency food assistance during September. Funding shortages forced the agency to skip the monthly distribution cycle except in Adré and for newly arriving people. The brief puts emergency food assistance at 163,748 people, primarily Sudanese refugees.
For comparison, WFP’s preceding brief recorded 721,075 recipients of general food assistance in August, 96% of them refugees. That earlier document had warned that resource constraints were already forcing adjustments and threatened further distribution delays and interruptions.
The newly disclosed missed cycle means households already dependent on assistance went without their regular delivery. It coincided with agricultural stress from delayed rains and persistent rainfall deficits, affecting crops, pasture and water supplies. Separately, WFP provided drought-related anticipatory cash assistance to 53,874 people in September, bringing that programme’s cumulative reach to 170,000 since July.