Cairo: international Experts paint a grim picture War-torn SudanA report on Thursday warned that up to 755,000 people could face famine in the coming months amid persistent fighting between rival generals.
The latest findings come from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, an initiative first launched in 2004 during a famine in Somalia that now involves more than a dozen UN agencies, aid groups, governments and other bodies.
The report says that 8.5 million people are facing extreme stress. food shortages After 14 months Conflict in Sudan,
The north-east African country was plunged into chaos in April last year when tensions between the country’s army led by General Abdel-Fattah Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces, a notorious paramilitary group commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, erupted into open fighting in the capital Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.
According to the United Nations, more than 14,000 people have been killed and 33,000 others injured in the devastating conflict, but human rights activists say the toll could be much higher.
The conflict has created the world’s largest displacement crisis, with more than 11 million people forced to flee their homes. Human rights experts working for the United Nations said both warring sides used food and starvation as weapons of war.
The report on hunger said the highest number of people facing hunger in the coming months are in 10 provinces, including the Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan regions and the Blue Nile and Jazeera provinces. The number was zero in June 2023 and rose to 755,000 last year.
“The conflict has not only caused large-scale displacement and disruption of supply routes, market systems and agricultural production, but has also restricted access to essential commodities.” Humanitarian aid”This has made an already serious situation even worse,” the report said.
Another 8.5 million people are classified as being in the second-worst level of hunger, or Stage 4, meaning the risk of hunger-related death is rising sharply, the IPC report said. These people are facing extreme food shortages, acute undernutrition and extremely high disease levels, it said.
Overall, more than half of the country’s 47 million population – 25.6 million – are “facing a crisis or worse” between June and September. It warned of the risk of famine in 14 regions “if the conflict escalates, including due to the growing mobilisation of local militias.”
“The situation is particularly dire for those trapped in areas affected by direct conflict and/or insecurity and lack of protection,” the report said, citing Darfur, Kordofan, Khatoum and Jazeera, where fighting has continued for months.
The conflict has been plagued by atrocities including rape, gang rape and ethnically-motivated attacks, which rights groups consider war crimes and crimes against humanity. In recent months, the fighting has spread to new areas, including agricultural hubs such as Jazira province, which the RSF seized last year.
Tajada D’Oyen McKenna, chief executive of the non-governmental organisation Mercy Corps, said the expansion of the fighting had had devastating consequences. Food Productsand caused severe malnutrition among children, pregnant women and lactating mothers, the critically ill and the elderly.
“Sudan has become one of the world’s greatest and most overlooked man-made tragedies,” McKenna said. “This crisis demands urgent diplomatic efforts to ensure the rapid and safe delivery of humanitarian assistance and the protection of civilians.”
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