Steps away from famine in Sudan - FAO - WFP

UN relief teams warn of record levels of hunger in Sudan amid ongoing conflict

With conflict and economic decline continuing across Sudan, UN humanitarians on Friday dubbed the country “one of the most food-insecure…on the planet”.

More than 20.3 million people – at least 42 per cent of the population – now experience high levels of acute food insecurity, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase (IPC) projections.

“The situation is critical” and families are encountering “unimaginable suffering”, said Adam Yao, Deputy UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Representative in Sudan.

Speaking from Port Sudan via Zoom to journalists in Geneva, Mr; Yao said that compared to the results from the last IPC analysis conducted in May 2022, the number of highly food-insecure people will nearly double between July and September 2023.

Some 14 million people are facing “Crisis” levels of hunger (IPC Phase 3) and nearly 6.2 million people face “Emergency” levels of acute hunger (IPC Phase 4), Mr. Yao said.

The states most severely affected are those grappling with active conflict, including Khartoum, South and West Kordofan, along with Central, East, South and West Darfur, where “over half of the population is facing acute hunger”.

Latest displacement data indicates that some four million people have been displaced from Sudan in a little over 100 days, since fighting erupted between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with Khartoum State remaining the epicentre of the conflict.

The UN agency said that critical infrastructure, including healthcare facilities, power sources and telecommunications had suffered significant damage, further exacerbating food insecurity and malnutrition. Market disruptions and soaring food prices have compounded the population's struggle to access essential goods and services.

Echoing the FAO concerns, Eddie Rowe, World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director for Sudan, pointed out that in the nearly four months since the conflict started, their “grim prediction” had come true, that hunger would rise to engulf more than 19 million people. Mr. Rowe described the operating environment in Sudan as “the most challenging that I have experienced in my career”, with the need to gain access to people in need of life-saving food assistance becoming “more challenging and increasingly urgent”.

On a positive note, the WFP spokesperson said that there was a major breakthrough last week when, for the first time, the agency delivered food assistance in West Darfur State. He explained that “a convoy of five trucks transporting 125 metric tonnes of food commodities travelled from eastern Chad to West Darfur where we were able to assist about 15,400 people in three villages”.

Mr. Rowe said that he hoped that the route from Chad will become “a regular humanitarian corridor to reach these families in West Darfur, especially in Geneina – the capital of West Darfur - but more importantly inwards into Zalingei in central Darfur, where lives have been torn apart by the violence”.

Mr. Yao also explained that the FAO has managed to procure 8,840 tonnes of cereal (sorghum and millet) and okra seed, despite the complex security conditions. These have reached more than half a million farming households across the country. The FAO aims to reach up to one million farmers in time for the planting season, in order to produce enough cereal to cover the needs of up to 19 million people for a year. The spokesperson pointed out that FAO became “the first UN agency to reach West Kordofan and East Darfur since the conflict began and has managed to distribute the seed to farmers through its local partners”. He explained that this milestone has facilitated access to North and South Darfur, allowing FAO to broaden its assistance to vulnerable communities.

Mr Yao. added that the success of the campaign is a reminder of “the importance of agriculture as a cost-efficient front-line humanitarian intervention to reduce vulnerability and strengthen food and nutrition security.”

ENDS