UN: Sudan on brink of ‘world’s largest hunger crisis’

WFP

UN’s World Food Program [WFP] has sounded the alarm about the situation in Sudan, saying the African country is on the brink of becoming the “world’s largest hunger crisis”.
Leni Kinzli, WFP’s spokesperson in Sudan, said at a virtual news conference that the agency is “warning that time is running out to prevent starvation” and that the escalation of clashes in El Fasher is hindering humanitarian assistance efforts in the region.
“One year of this devastating conflict in Sudan has created an unprecedented hunger catastrophe and threatens to ignite the world’s largest hunger crisis,” she said, adding that food aid is limited in El Fasher and Darfur regions due to the “fighting and endless bureaucratic hurdles.”
Kinzli mentioned that they are attempting to reach 700,000 people before the start of the rainy season, while roads are still usable and they have 8,000 tons of food stocks in Chad, but distribution is hindered due to constraints.
Highlighting WFP’s urgent need for unhindered access and security guarantees, she emphasised that the escalating conflict in El Fasher is deeply affecting the 1.7 million people already suffering from hunger.
Noting that about 28 million people in Sudan and South Sudan are facing food insecurity, she called on the international community to take action.
The Sudanese army controls El Fasher, and it is supported by armed movements that signed the Juba peace agreement with the government in 2020.
For more than a year, Sudan has suffered a war between the army, headed by the country’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah al Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than 8.5 million to flee their homes in what the United Nations has called the “largest displacement crisis in the world”.
The RSF has seized four out of five state capitals in Darfur, a region about the size of France and home to around one-quarter of Sudan’s 48 million people.
El-Fasher is the last major city in Darfur that is not under paramilitary control and the United States warned last month of a looming offensive on the city.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said Saturday he was “very concerned about the ongoing war in Sudan”.
“We need an urgent ceasefire and a coordinated international effort to deliver a political process that can get the country back on track,” he said in a post on social media site X.
“The conflict has resulted in significant loss of life, displacement, and economic strain. Beyond the figures, our new report aims to show the very real, multifaceted, human impact of the crisis on the people that have become displaced due to an entire year of this conflict,” she said.
The ongoing fighting has resulted in significant loss of life, with over 14,700 people killed and almost 30,000 injured.
More than 8.2 million people have fled their homes since the conflict started on April 15, 2023, making the conflict in Sudan the world’s largest displacement crisis.
Also, close to 25 million people (around half of the population) are in immediate need of assistance, including 18 million people facing acute food insecurity.