GENEVA (AN) — Armed conflict and a wrecked economy have led to a painful and dangerous lack of food for 42% of Sudan's 48 million population.
The World Food Program said on Friday its fears about record levels of hunger in Sudan since the conflict broke out in April have been confirmed.
"Now, nearly four months since the conflict started, that grim prediction has proved to be a harsh reality," Eddie Rowe, WFP’s country director for Sudan, told a press briefing.
"The conflict has pushed over 20 million people into severe acute hunger. That is around 42% of Sudan’s population. Of that figure, 6.3 million people are experiencing IPC4 or emergency levels of hunger. That is one step away from famine."
The Food and Agriculture Organization had warned a week earlier that at least 20.3 million people in Sudan could suffer from acute food insecurity as the east African country is plunged into chaos with battles raging in Khartoum and other urban areas – almost double the number from a year earlier.
The areas most affected by the fighting since April between rival generals vying for control of the nation include Khartoum, South and West Kordofan, and Central, East, South and West Darfur, where half the population has acute hunger.
The World Food Program says a record number of people, or about one-third of the population, was already facing hunger before the latest conflict erupted.
"We urgently call on all parties to the conflict to facilitate humanitarian access and enable the safe delivery of assistance at this critical time when millions in Sudan are struggling with rising hunger and living on the brink of survival," Rowe said.
Rowe described the latest situation in Sudan as the most challenging of his 30-year career with WFP. "Gaining access to people in need of life-saving food assistance has also become more challenging and increasingly urgent," he said.
Over the past week, however, WFP had a major breakthrough when it got a convoy of five trucks carrying 125 metric tons of food into West Darfur, enough to feed 15,400 people for a month in the villages of Adikong, Shukri, and Jarabi.
"It is our hope that this route from Chad will become a regular humanitarian corridor to reach these families in West Darfur, especially in Geneina – the capital of West Darfur - where lives have been torn apart by the violence," he said. "The situation in the Darfurs, and particularly in West and Central Darfur, is catastrophic."
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, for OCHA said on Friday it facilitated a convoy of WFP trucks carrying some 460 tons of supplies into Jabal Awlia in greater Khartoum, one of the areas hardest hit by the fighting. Since late May, it said, WFP has assisted more than 150,000 people in that area.
Rowe said health facilities, banks and other critical infrastructure in the Darfurs are destroyed and the remaining population, mostly women and their children, are "acutely vulnerable and have not fled because they are too scared. Their husbands have been killed, injured, or have gone missing. These families are barely surviving."
At a debate this month on famine and conflict-induced hunger around the world, the U.N. Security Council adopted a presidential statement that “reiterates the need to break the vicious cycle between armed conflict and food insecurity."
The 'lifeline' of agricultural support
The 15-nation council, where the U.S. holds this month's revolving presidency, noted that armed conflict was the most significant factor behind the acute food insecurity afflicting 117 million people in 19 countries and territories. It said 148 million children younger than five have stunted growth due to malnutrition.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who chaired the council session highlighting conflict as a key driver of hunger and famine, urged all nations to demand that Moscow stop using the Black Sea as "blackmail" and "vulnerable people as leverage."
He also announced the United States will provide US$362 million to reduce hunger in Haiti and 11 countries in Africa on top of the US$17.5 billion it has given since Jan. 2021 for reducing famine and food insecurity around the world.
"The Kremlin claims that it tore up the deal because international sanctions were restricting its agricultural exports. In reality, sanctions explicitly exclude food and fertilizer," Blinken said.
"In fact, at the time it abandoned the initiative, Russia was exporting more grain at higher prices than ever before," he said. "And what has Russia’s response been to the world’s distress and outrage? Bombing Ukrainian granaries, mining port entrances, threatening to attack any vessel in the Black Sea – no matter its flag, no matter its cargo."Acute food insecurity is a five-stage classification system – ranging from minimal or stressed to crisis-level, emergency and catastrophic or famine – that's used to determine how much danger people face from not having enough food to eat.
The council's statement emphasizes the need for humanitarian aid to be "gender and age sensitive," though some nations had wanted less focus on gender issues.
At least 2.6 million people nationwide are displaced and 700,000 fled to neighboring countries. Food is in short supply due to disrupted markets and high food prices. Damage is widespread to health, power and communications facilities.
"The conflict has had devastating consequences on the food and nutrition security and well-being of millions of people," said Abdulhakim Elwaer, FAO's assistant director-general and regional representative for the Near East and North Africa.
"Families are facing unimaginable suffering," he said. "It is vital that FAO is stepping in to support more than 1 million farmers this season to produce enough food for Sudanese people."
U.N. agencies with support from the U.S., Norway, Germany and the Netherlands are shipping thousands of metric tons of sorghum, millet and okra seed to a half-million farming households, and plan to reach 1 million ahead of planting season. That would produce enough cereal to feed 19 million people for a year.
But FAO says it's US$65 million short of the funding to pay for farming and fishing supplies and training needed by almost 6.3 million vulnerable people.
"Agriculture is a lifeline," said Hongjie Yang, FAO's representative in Sudan.
This story was originally published on Aug. 3 and has been updated with additional details.
