EU: five million people need urgent help in Sudan

                      

Khartoum, 15 June 2016 (AFP) - At least five million people need urgent help in Sudan before the displacement of the population and the growing number of refugees from South Sudan, warned on Wednesday an official of the European Commission.

The warning Jean-Louis De Brouwer, Director of Humanitarian Affairs and European Civil Defense, occurs after the body allocate 12.5 million euros to the World Food Programme (WFP) to support humanitarian operations in Sudan.

"The humanitarian situation in various parts of Sudan is critical after the new displacement in the Darfur region and the increasing arrival of South Sudanese refugees," Brouwer De said in a statement published by WFP.

"More than five million people need urgent help," he warned the official.

In April, WFP announced a deficit of 181 million dollars (160.8 million euros) in its aid programs, especially involving South Sudanese refugees.

At least 70,000 South Sudanese have fled to neighboring Sudan since last January, to escape hunger and war, said last week the UN Bureau for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, plunged into a civil war that has killed tens of thousands of civilians.