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Germany supports humanitarian activities and flood response in South Sudan

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South Sudan
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WFP
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JUBA - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has received a €10 million (US$10.9 million) contribution from Germany to support life-saving humanitarian and recovery activities as well as the current response to widespread flooding in South Sudan.

The contribution, which will be used to provide food and nutrition assistance to tens of thousands of people including malnourished children, pregnant and nursing women comes at a critical time for South Sudan.

The country is still reeling from the effects of a severe drought episode – with 4.5 million people in need of food assistance between now and the end of the year. In addition, South Sudan is currently hit by the worst floods in living memory affecting close to a million people and it would cost WFP US$ 40 million to mount an effective flood response for the next three months.

“People affected by the floods need immediate help. We have therefore increased our humanitarian assistance to the people of South Sudan by a further €10 million,” says Manuel Müller, Germany’s Ambassador to South Sudan. “Overall in 2019, Germany has contributed humanitarian assistance worth €72 million through various United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations in the country.”

Some of the contribution will be used to scale-up biometric registration through WFP’s SCOPE system – a beneficiary information and transfer management platform – used to redeem food or cash entitlements through fingerprint authentication and the household SCOPE card. To date, some 2 million people have been registered on the SCOPE system in South Sudan and plans are underway to have registered five million by 2020.

The contribution will also enable the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service, which is managed by WFP, to keep providing flights for the humanitarian community. The air service transports 90,000 passengers per year to 55 regular destinations in the country.

“We are very grateful to the people of Germany for their continued support,’’ says Matthew Hollingworth, WFP’s Country Director in South Sudan. “The contribution is invaluable, but South Sudan is not out of the woods yet. It is crucial that we maintain support to consolidate the gains made, especially now as the country continues on the path to recovery and peace.”

WFP provides various types of assistance in South Sudan: food assistance for people building or restoring community assets such as roads, emergency school meals to keep children in school and the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition among children and pregnant and nursing women. Since January, WFP has so far reached 4.3 million people and plans to reach 5 million people by the end of the year.

The German government is one of the longest-standing partners of WFP assistance in South Sudan. The latest contribution brings Germany’s total contributions to WFP activities in South Sudan to €124 million (US$140 million) in the last five years.

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The United Nations World Food Programme - saving lives in emergencies and changing lives for millions through sustainable development. WFP works in more than 80 countries around the world, feeding people caught in conflict and disasters, and laying the foundations for a better future.

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For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org): Tomson Phiri, WFP/Juba, Tel. Mob. +211 922 465 247