Help Mercy Corps Support Those in Sudan

Mercy Corps emergency programs in Sudan provide life-saving support to families caught in the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. More than 30 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance, more than 12 million are displaced, and communities in Northern Darfur are facing starvation. With Mercy Corps programs going unfunded by cancelled contracts, 150,000 people no longer have access to safe drinking water, and 40,000 people will lose food assistance.

Emmanuel Ufot, Mercy Corps Emergency Strategic Support Director in North Sudan, bluntly describes what happens in clinics treating patients for severe malnutrition when aid is suddenly stripped. “When funding is cut, especially from major donors who contribute 40-50% of aid, it is like turning off oxygen in a hospital,” he says. “The impact is immediate and devastating – people start dying the next second.”

While the situation is already dire, Ufot expects the crisis will escalate as people lose access to the limited cash assistance and nutrition resourcesthey depended on to survive. “If the assistance is no longer available, people will have to adopt more extreme coping strategies,” he says. “They might sell whatever little assets they have left – perhaps a chicken or two – just to survive. The big question is, what will they do when those resources are gone?”

Our teams and partners are working diligently and effectively each day. We won’t stop helping communities around the world cope, adapt, and thrive in the face of disaster, violent conflict, and extreme hunger to provide desperately needed support for survival and to build a future of self-reliance.

Let’s rise together and continue to make a difference in the lives of those who need it most.