WFP Airdrops Feed 500K in Cut-Off South Sudan Villages

Nyagha watches the sky above Kueryang with her seven children, listening for the roar of engines that means her family will eat tonight.

When the World Food Programme's cargo plane appears overhead, it's carrying 30 tons of food for communities cut off by floods and conflict in South Sudan's Jonglei State. The aircraft circles four times at 400 meters, then drops to 200 meters as the rear ramp opens.

One by one, reinforced sacks of cereal fall toward the marked drop zone below. Each bag hits the ground with a thunderous thud, designed to withstand the impact while keeping the grain inside safe.

This is survival by precision flying. More than half of Jonglei State's 1.2 million people face crisis-level hunger, and when the rainy season arrives between April and July, roads disappear completely under floodwater.

Nyagha knows what life looks like without these airdrops. "When there is no food from the drops," she explains quietly, "we go to the flooded areas and collect lilies or tree leaves to eat." Her youngest child is three.

Only a tiny fraction of South Sudan's roads are paved. During the rainy season, the only transportation is by canoe, which means traditional truck deliveries become impossible for months at a time.

The Ripple Effect

The World Food Programme and UN Humanitarian Air Service didn't just drop food in 2025. They delivered over 13,000 tons of humanitarian aid by air and transported staff from 217 humanitarian organizations to frontline crisis zones across South Sudan.

These flights reach places where vultures circle above flood-scarred earth, where animal bones lie half-buried in mud, and where mothers search flooded fields for anything edible. Road delivery costs less, but for remote villages like Kueryang, 500 kilometers from the capital Juba, airdrops are the only option.

After the bags land safely in the drop zone, aid workers verify identities and distribute the grain. Nyagha will use her share to make walwal, a thick local porridge that means her children won't go to bed hungry.

The sound of the plane means everything to her family. "When I hear it," Nyagha says, "I know food is coming."

Countries including the European Union, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States funded these 2025 operations, ensuring that even the world's most isolated communities aren't forgotten.