The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned Wednesday about a “looming hunger catastrophe” in Sudan, where months of conflict, high food prices and lower crop yields have left an increasing number of people at emergency levels of hunger. According to latest IPC food security analysis released Tuesday, some 17.7 million people across Sudan face high levels of acute food insecurity, classified in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) or worse between October 2023 and February 2024.
“Nearly 18 million people across Sudan are facing acute hunger right now — this is equivalent to the entire population of the Netherlands and more than double the number at the same time a year ago,” WFP Sudan spokesperson Leni Kinzli told reporters in a remote briefing from Nairobi.
The UN food agency warned Wednesday that parts of war-ravaged Sudan are at a high risk of slipping into catastrophic hunger conditions by next year’s lean season if the WFP is unable to expand access and regularly deliver food assistance to people trapped in conflict hotspots. Sudan – once described as East Africa’s future breadbasket – is facing a deepening hunger crisis as the conflict raging across the country approaches its eighth month.
Fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in mid-April, displacing more than 6.9 million people both inside and outside the country. Repeated efforts to achieve a cease-fire have failed.
On Wednesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres – in a statement - reiterated the United Nations commitment to support ongoing African mediation efforts to work with all other relevant stakeholders to help end the war and restore peace in Sudan.
“The secretary-general is gravely concerned by the unwillingness of the parties — so far — to cease hostilities, which has caused untold suffering for civilians across Sudan,” Guterres’ spokesperson told reporters.
Meanwhile, Kinzli said fighting and checkpoints have hindered aid operations. WFP is especially worried about populations trapped in Khartoum, the Darfur region in the west, and the south-central Kordofan region where aid deliveries have been sporadic at best.
She said WFP has had some access to people in the greater Khartoum area, but only managed to reach the capital once in the last three months. Kinzli said the food agency, along with the entire humanitarian community, are urgently calling on the parties to the conflict for a humanitarian pause to get aid access.
“Lives are depending on it,” the spokesperson said.
Kinzli said WFP is alarmed at the levels of hunger now during the current harvest season, when food is typically more plentiful. She said if more food assistance does not reach communities before the lean season in May, when food is in shorter supply, “catastrophic levels” of hunger could begin to emerge.
Nearly 18 million people across Sudan are facing acute hunger (IPC3 or worse) – more than double the number at the same time a year ago. This figure is also higher than the initial projection of 15 million made in the previous assessment in August, demonstrating just how rapidly the food security situation is deteriorating.
Currently, around 4.9 million people are in emergency levels of food insecurity (IPC4) with over three-quarters of these people cornered in areas where humanitarian access has been sporadic and, in some areas, impossible due to ongoing fighting.
According to WFP, the key drivers of the plunge into hunger include intensified conflict and growing intercommunal violence, macroeconomic crisis, soaring prices of food, fuel and essential goods, and below average agricultural production.
“We urgently call on all parties to the conflict for a humanitarian pause and unfettered access to avert a hunger catastrophe in the upcoming lean season. Lives depend on it, yet there are far too many people trapped in areas with active fighting who we can only reach sporadically, if at all,” emphasized Eddie Rowe, WFP Country Director and Representative in Sudan, in a statement.
The food agency urgently needs US$252 million to fund its operations in Sudan through May. More than 500,000 people have fled to neighboring Chad, where the food agency is already stretched thin. WFP needs US$185 million over the next six months to assist 4 million people in Chad or, Kinzli warned, they may have to start cutting rations.
“The speed at which hunger has risen over the past year is alarming. More and more people are struggling to eat a basic meal a day, and unless things change there is a very real risk, they won’t even be able to do that,” Rowe added.
The scale of the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Sudan is unprecedented. The UN says the country is experiencing a “humanitarian crisis of epic proportions”. Millions of people – especially in Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan – lack access to protection, food, water, shelter, electricity, education, and health care.
The number of people in need of humanitarian aid stands now at 24.8 million people – more than half of Sudan’s population. Among them are more than 13 million children in urgent need of lifesaving humanitarian support.
The civil war between the SAF and the RSF is being waged with a new level of violence and brutality against civilians, especially in the states of Darfur. Thousands are ethnically targeted, killed, injured, abused, and exploited, forcing more and more people to flee the violence.
Since the conflict in Sudan started eight months ago, more than 5.6 million people – Sudanese and refugees already residing in the country - have been displaced inside Sudan, while 1.3 million women, men, and children have fled to neighboring countries, including Chad, Egypt, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: WFP warns that hunger catastrophe looms in conflict-hit Sudan without urgent food assistance, WFP press release, December 13, 2023
https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-warns-hunger-catastrophe-looms-conflict-hit-sudan-without-urgent-food-assistance
Full text: Sudan: IPC Acute Food Insecurity Analysis, October 2023–February 2024, report, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, released December 12, 2023
https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_Sudan_Acute_Food_Insecurity_Oct2023_Feb2024_Report.pdf