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‘Super El Niño’ and converging crises worsen hunger in South Sudan and across the region - WFP
South Sudan’s hunger crisis is becoming increasingly catastrophic as violence, extreme weather and dwindling aid leave millions without enough food, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday.
“Conflict, displacement, economic hardship, climate shocks, and the situation in neighbouring Sudan are all converging to push millions of people deeper into vulnerability” just as humanitarian resources are starting to run out, Matthew Hollingworth, WFP’s Assistant Executive Director for Programme Operations, told reporters in Geneva.
Some 7.8 million people, or more than half of the country's population, struggle to find food each day, while 2.2 million children and 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding mothers require urgent nutrition support, he said. A further million vulnerable people could lose access to life-saving food and nutrition assistance by October without additional resources.
After returning from a visit to the country last week, Mr. Hollingworth insisted that the impact of the “super El Niño” is already immediately clear in South Sudan; even the most fertile agricultural areas have been affected, with crops failing and low yields due to drought.
Beyond South Sudan itself, the regional impact of extreme weather is also being felt in neighbouring Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya, causing a “bigger effect on food security in the entire area”, the WFP official warned.
El Niño is a naturally occurring climate pattern that typically develops every two to seven years, when waters in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific become unusually warm, with impacts on rainfall and temperature patterns thousands of miles away. This year, El Niño is developing as the oceans are already exceptionally warm. Earlier this month UN chief António Guterres said that the phenomenon is “being supersized before our eyes”.
Over the border in Sudan, the proximity of what UN humanitarians have called the world’s worst hunger and displacement crisis is making the dire situation even worse.
Each week, the country sees the influx of 3,000 refugees and South Sudanese who were formerly refugees in Sudan, “looking for safety, looking for food, looking for water, looking for shelter”, Mr. Hollingworth said.
The WFP official spoke of meeting women, children and older people in Renk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan, last week, who had “travelled for days, sometimes weeks on foot” to escape fighting between Government and opposition forces, arriving exhausted and hungry “into communities that are already struggling significantly to feed themselves and look after themselves”.
Access challenges continue to compound the crisis. Aid and commercial food transported along the River Nile “face illegal checkpoints and illegal taxation by soldiers across the entirety of the journeys that they take,” increasing operational costs and slowing down the delivery of assistance.
In Upper Nile State’s capital Malakal, Mr. Hollingworth noted, “if a family is eating something other than tomatoes, okra, chilies and onions that are grown locally, anything else they are eating has been flown into Malakal” as it is too expensive to bring it in by road or by barge, including because of the illegal taxes that have to be paid along the way.
“This is starting not just to raise costs, it's starting to be a cost in terms of people's lives,” he concluded.
-ends-
STORY South Sudan hunger crisis - WFP
TRT: 4:11’’
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: WFP BROLL - CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 14 SEPTEMBER 2026 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND and 8-9 SEPTEMBER 2026, UPPER NILE STATE, SOUTH SUDAN
1. Exterior wide shot: Palais des Nations, Flag Alley.
2. Medium shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference.
3. SOUNDBITE (English) – Matthew Hollingworth, Assistant Executive Director for Programme Operations, World Food Programme (WFP): “Conflict, displacement, economic hardship, climate shocks, and the situation in neighboring Sudan are all converging to push millions of people deeper into vulnerability. At the same time, as I say, we're seeing not just the World Food Programme's humanitarian assistance, but all actors, humanitarian assistance in the country, rapidly declining in scale.”
4. Wide shot: Journalists in the Press room; speaker on screens.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) – Matthew Hollingworth, Assistant Executive Director for Programme Operations, World Food Programme (WFP): “Extreme weather shocks and the impact of what is a super El Niño is having a greater impact in South Sudan, but also in neighbouring Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya. It's going to have a bigger effect on food security in the entire area.”
6. Wide reverse shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference; speaker on screens; journalist in the Press room.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) – Matthew Hollingworth, Assistant Executive Director for Programme Operations, World Food Programme (WFP): “7.8 million people today, more than half the country's population struggle to find food each day. 2.2 million children and 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding mothers require urgent nutrition support. Unless additional resources are secured, more than a million vulnerable people could lose access to life-saving food and nutrition assistance by October.”
8. Wide shot: Journalists in the Press room; speaker on screens.
9. SOUNDBITE (English) – Matthew Hollingworth, Assistant Executive Director for Programme Operations, World Food Programme (WFP): “Each week, 3,000 refugees and Sudanese who were formerly refugees in Sudan, South Sudanese, formerly refugees in Sudan, are crossing the border, looking for safety, looking for food, looking for water, looking for shelter.”
10. Medium reverse shot: Speakers at the podium of the press conference; speaker on screens.
11. SOUNDBITE (English) – Matthew Hollingworth, Assistant Executive Director for Programme Operations, World Food Programme (WFP): “During my visit last week in Renk, I met women and children and older people who traveled for days on foot, sometimes weeks, escaping violence and uncertainty in order to get to South Sudan.”
12. Medium shot: Journalists in the Press room.
13. SOUNDBITE (English) – Matthew Hollingworth, Assistant Executive Director for Programme Operations, World Food Programme (WFP): “Honestly speaking, today in Malakal, if a family is eating something other than tomatoes, okra, chilies and onions that are grown locally, anything else they are eating has been flown into Malakal because it simply does not longer arrive by road or by barge because it's too expensive, because the materials have to pay so much, or the transporters have to pay so many illegal taxes on the way. They're just not taking the risk anymore. This is starting not just to raise costs, it's starting to be a cost in terms of people's lives.”
14. Various shots: Journalists in the Press room.
15. WFP BROLL: 8-9 SEPTEMBER 2026, Upper Nile State, South Sudan - Various shots:
-Children playing inside Renk Transit Centre. Shot: 8th September 2026 Renk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan
-A woman prepares a WFP nutrition supplement for her child inside Renk Transit Centre. Shot: 8th September 2026 Renk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan
- A WFP truck carrying food supplies drives through Renk Transit Centre. Shot: 8th September 2026 Renk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan
- A WFP barge transports food supplies along the White Nile River. Shot: 9th September 2026 White Nile River, Upper Nile State, South Sudan
- WFP conducts biometric registration and provides cash assistance to refugees and returnees at Renk Transit Centre. Shot: 8th September 2026 Renk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan
- Women and children gather at a nutrition site inside Renk Transit Centre, where WFP works closely with partners, including UNICEF, Plan International, and GOAL, to support the nutritional needs of refugees and returnees. Shot: 8th September 2026 Renk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan.
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