Aswan — The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), launched today an emergency cash assistance programme to support vulnerable people fleeing the conflict in Sudan. WFP’s pre-established cash delivery platform will also be made available to sister UN agencies to enable them to quickly extend their assistance to vulnerable people arriving in Egypt from Sudan. WFP and partner agencies have conducted a rapid assessment to identify the most vulnerable arrivals needing assistance. Assistance provided to identified people will allow them to access basic food and other essential needs. The food agency is already supporting over 100,000 refugees in Egypt through its existing cash delivery platform.
WFP will support the most vulnerable families arriving in Egypt who have crossed into the country with nothing or have run out of money after a long and perilous journey.
“They are drained by the journey that they and their families had to take to reach safety and are extremely food insecure. At this time of great uncertainty, cash assistance helps secure their most basic needs,” said WFP Representative and Country Director in Egypt Praveen Agrawal. “WFP will avail its cash delivery platform to sister UN Agencies like the UN’s children fund (UNICEF) and other development partners enabling them to quickly reach vulnerable families in need of support.”
This assistance comes in addition to the emergency ready-to-eat food packages new arrivals received upon arrival. At the onset of the crisis, WFP dispatched more than 20 metric tons of fortified emergency food assistance. WFP further expanded its assistance with additional packages of food, including enhanced nutritional food items that are distributed by the Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC) at the two entry points of Arqeen and Qustol on the Egyptian-Sudanese borders.
WFP is coordinating with the Government of Egypt and the Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC) the provision of assistance and has so far dispatched food assistance enough for nearly 90,000 people.
According to Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, about 88,000 people (83,000 Sudanese, and 5,000 Egyptians and third-country nationals) have crossed through the Sudan-Egypt border as of 11 May.
Egypt had already been hosting over 60,000 Sudanese refugees, and WFP has been a long-term supporter of the most vulnerable, providing monthly cash assistance to more than 10,000 of them to help them secure their basic food needs. Refugees receive monthly cash assistance through e-cards redeemable at over 140,000 points of sale nationwide.
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