SUDAN: WFP warns of "looming crisis"

NAIROBI, 28 December (IRIN) - More than 3.2 million people in Sudan are facing serious food and water shortages because of civil war and widening drought. The WFP December Update called the situation "a looming crisis".

According to WFP, some 700,000 more people are considered vulnerable this month, compared to estimates made only a month ago. "An additional appeal may be made on the basis of the assessment recently implemented by WFP and FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization]", WFP said.

It warned that lack of basic equipment, such as pumps to draw water from wells, "gives people little choice but to become nomadic when surface water supplies dry up". People affected by drought and war had started selling off cattle, causing a drop in livestock prices, warned WFP. According to the WFP December Update, "grain prices have gone up, which means that not much locally produced grain is being harvested".

A joint WFP and FAO report released on 22 December said rainfall in Sudan had characteristically been late, absent or uneven, which had affected crops at critical growth stages. Both northern and southern states had been affected. But insecurity was the major cause of food aid need in Sudan, said the FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment. It said WFP - currently feeding 1.7 million people in Sudan - continued to meet food aid needs in an emergency operation because of "unpredictable food crop production and changing security circumstances". The operation would be extended until March 2001.