26 million people in Sudan are 'one step away from famine': UN
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Hunger is just one of the simultaneous humanitarian crises Sudan is currently facing amid its internal armed conflict.
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Internally displaced women wait for their food ration during a food distribution next to a World Food Programme (WFP) truck in Bentiu, South Sudan, on February 7, 2023. (AFP)
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric expressed concern regarding the 26 million people in Sudan facing an acute hunger crisis amid the country's state of war.
"Of those 26 million, 750,000 people are just one step away from famine – which translates as IPC (Integrated Food Security) phase (classification) 5 for us," Dujarric told reporters, adding that the people of Sudan are facing a "worst-case scenario."
Sudan's internal armed war
Sudan is grappling with the world's most severe hunger and displacement crisis over a year into the devastating war resulting from the violence between the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by the head of the ruling Sovereign Council Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The war has led to widespread destruction and death, with at least 16,000 dead and millions more displaced internally and externally amid a devastated healthcare system.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that over 7.7 million people have been internally displaced since the onset of the conflict. Additionally, more than 2 million people have sought refuge in neighboring countries, with children under the age of 18 making up 55% of these displaced persons.
UNICEF has identified Sudan as having the highest number of displaced children globally, with 5 million affected. The IOM has highlighted that the majority of these displacements come from Khartoum (36%), South Darfur (20%), and North Darfur (14%), the areas most affected by the war.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has painted a grim picture of the deteriorating situation across Sudan. Women, children, and entire families are being forced to flee, abandoning their homes and possessions, with OCHA also reporting that Sudan is currently facing its worst food insecurity in two decades.
World Health Organization (WHO) Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed the severity of the crisis, underlining that one in every five people in Sudan is experiencing emergency-level food insecurity. He highlighted that 755,000 people are facing catastrophic hunger, with 25.6 million dealing with acute food shortages.
Approximately 8.9 million Sudanese children are suffering from acute food insecurity and disease, UNICEF Representative in Sudan Mandeep O'Brien said, while UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell described Sudan as "one of the worst places in the world" for children.
Sudan Foreign Ministry accuses RSF of starving, impoverishing people
The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned against the country sliding into famine, citing the destruction of infrastructure by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the disruption of the agricultural season in the renowned Gezira Scheme.
In a statement on July 17, the Ministry said that under the supervision of its regional sponsors, the RSF "continues its malicious plan to cause famine in the country, by deliberately and systematically disrupting agricultural activity in food production areas, intimidating farmers, and destroying the infrastructure of the agricultural sector, as well as the looting of agricultural machinery, seeds, and crops of the winter and summer seasons."
The statement pointed out that "the ultimate goal of the plan is to force people out of their production areas and replace them with militia members and foreign mercenaries."
"Due to this terrorist campaign, production was disrupted in parts of the Gezira Scheme for the first time in a hundred years, in addition to threatening the agricultural season in the states of Sennar and Blue Nile and the al-Rahad Scheme," the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated.
Elsewhere, the Ministry stressed the necessity of "confronting those behind this plan aimed at starving and impoverishing the people of Sudan."
