ROME: The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said Wednesday that its two top staff in Sudan had been ordered to leave the war-torn country by the foreign ministry.
The country director and emergency coordinator “have been designated as persona non grata, and asked to leave the country within 72 hours, without any explanation,” the Rome-based agency said in a statement.
WFP and senior UN officials were engaging with Sudanese authorities to protest the decision, which came “at a pivotal time,” it said.
“Humanitarian needs in Sudan have never been greater with more than 24 million people facing acute food insecurity and communities impacted by famine,” it said.
“At a moment when WFP and its partners need to be expanding their reach, this decision forces WFP to implement unplanned leadership changes, jeopardizing operations that support millions of vulnerable Sudanese facing extreme hunger, malnutrition, and even starvation,” it said.
The expulsions were announced days after paramilitaries seized the key city of El-Fasher in the western region of Darfur.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), locked in a brutal war with the army since April 2023, had launched a final assault on the city in recent days, seizing the army’s last positions.
The capture of El-Fasher has sparked fears of mass killings reminiscent of the region’s darkest days.
Analysts say Sudan is now effectively partitioned along an east-west axis, with the RSF running a parallel government across Darfur while the army is entrenched along the Nile and Red Sea in the north, east and center.