Families in Sudan are eating grass to survive in an escalating hunger crisis, with famine-level malnutrition spreading across half of Sudan's 18 states, the international humanitarian organization Save the Children warned on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the United Nations reports that fighting continues to rage in North Darfur, West Darfur, Khartoum, North Kordofan and Al Jazira states, despite repeated calls for the warring parties to cease fighting, ensure the protection of civilians and facilitate humanitarian access.
Since the start of the war in Sudan, severe acute food insecurity has increased massively, leaving more than half of the country hungry. Sudan is now the world's largest hunger crisis, with nearly 26 million people facing high levels of acute hunger, including some 755,000 on the brink of famine.
Save the Children said in a statement today that the extremely high rate of global acute malnutrition (GAM) among children under five in 19 localities across nine states is pushing communities into high risk of famine for the first time since the war began over 18 months ago.
Famine has already been declared in the Zamzam displacement camp in Sudan's Darfur region, where some 500,000 people live, marking only the third time a formal famine declaration has been made since the creation of the international famine monitoring system 20 years ago.
Tens of thousands of others are likely facing similar conditions in other famine-prone areas. The situation is particularly critical for people trapped in conflict-affected areas, as families and children endure one of the most violent months in Sudan, with a major escalation in fighting reported in North Darfur and Khartoum since the war began in April. 2023.
Famine can be declared when at least 20 percent of households in an area face extreme food shortages, at least 30 percent of children suffer from acute malnutrition, and two out of every 10,000 people die each day from outright starvation or the combined effects of malnutrition and disease.
Save the Children warns that the hunger crisis is now reaching a wider population, with at least three recent surveys showing GAM rates exceeding 30 percent of the under-five population - a key measure of a population's nutritional status and one of the basic indicators used to assess the severity of a humanitarian crisis.
More than 2 million people living in these locations - or about 4 percent of the population - are in dire need of food to survive, the non-governmental organization (NGO) said, with each passing day bringing them closer to death from hunger and malnutrition-related causes.
The humanitarian organization analyzed nutrition surveys conducted by Sudan's Nutrition Cluster - a partnership between the UN, the Federal Ministry of Health, and NGOs including Save the Children - in all 18 states, and found an alarming deterioration of the nutrition situation in 19 locations.
The surveys recorded global acute malnutrition rates of 30 percent and above - exceeding the famine threshold - in Al Lait, At Tawisha and Um Kadadah in North Darfur. In more than half of these surveys, acute malnutrition rates exceeded 20 percent, with the highest prevalence of 74.2 percent.
Save the Children quotes a member of its field staff as saying that young children under the age of five are suffering the most. Health facilities have seen "children with visible wasting and medical complications such as high fever, intractable vomiting, no appetite and very lethargic".
In addition, mothers are running out of ways to feed their children, and many are resorting to drastic coping mechanisms. In Tawilla and El Fasher, people are "eating grass boiled in onions, groundnuts and salt to survive," the aid worker said, according to the NGO.
“Sudanese children are surviving bombs and bullets, only to risk dying from starvation and disease. We know that malnutrition rates in children under five in Sudan are among the highest in the world,” Mohamed Abdiladif, Interim Country Director for Save the Children in Sudan, said.
But “the spiraling GAM rates is the last signal that small babies will pay the biggest price in this conflict — going hungry, becoming sick and potentially dying from malnutrition related causes if urgent action is not taken to reverse the situation.”
Save the Children is calling on the international community “to take urgent political action and put in place an immediate ceasefire and meaningful progress towards a lasting peace agreement”, and for increased funding for “much-needed food and nutrition support for millions of vulnerable children.”
Also on Tuesday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) expressed grave concern about the impact of the ongoing armed conflict on civilians in many parts of Sudan.
“Fighting continues to rage in the states of North Darfur, West Darfur, Khartoum, North Kordofan and Aj Jazirah [Al Jazirah], despite repeated calls for the parties to de-escalate, ensure the protection of civilians and facilitate humanitarian access,” the humanitarian office said in an update.
In North Darfur state alone, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that more than 400,000 people have been displaced in the El Fasher area in just six months. And many of them had been displaced at least once before in the course of this conflict.
OCHA continues to receive reports of civilian casualties and indiscriminate attacks on public infrastructure and residential areas - both in North Darfur and elsewhere - with many areas effectively cut off from humanitarian assistance.
“Once again, OCHA calls on the parties to stop the fighting and allow humanitarian organizations to reach people in need of life-saving assistance wherever they are,” the UN humanitarian office said.
Meanwhile, humanitarian agencies and Sudanese health authorities continue to scale up their response to the ongoing cholera outbreak. Since July, Sudan's cholera outbreak has spread to 11 states, with nearly 26,000 reported cases and 722 related deaths.
According to OCHA, the most recent phase of the cholera vaccination campaign began late last week, with the goal of reaching some 1.4 million people in Kassala, Gedaref and Nile states.
Sudan faces not only the world's largest hunger crisis, but also the world's largest displacement crisis and the world's largest humanitarian crisis, yet the emergency receives little media attention and the humanitarian response is woefully underfunded.
The Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for 2024 calls for US$2.7 billion to reach 14.7 million people by the end of this year. As of today, the HRP is only 56 percent funded. This year's Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRP) requires $1.5 billion to support 3.3 million refugees, returnees and host communities in seven countries bordering Sudan. The RRP is currently only 27 percent covered by funding.
For more than a year and a half, the people of Sudan have endured the humanitarian impact of a devastating conflict - with no end in sight. As fighting, hunger and disease spread, more than 50 percent of the population is in need of humanitarian assistance. Among those in need are more than 14 million children. Tens of thousands have been killed or injured since the outbreak of the war in April 2023 between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
More than 11.4 million people have been displaced since fighting between the two warring factions erupted. While more than 8.4 million people - Sudanese and refugees already living in the country - are displaced within Sudan, more than 3 million women, men and children have sought refuge in other countries.
The majority of internally displaced people (IDPs) - 55 percent - are children under the age of 18. Overall, more than 20 percent of Sudan's population has fled their homes, either internally or across borders, due to the ongoing war.