Famine in Sudan's Darfur prompts UN call for action

Food and Agriculture Organisation pleads for a ceasefire to allow increased humanitarian access

A displaced Sudanese child stands at Zamzam camp in Sudan's North Darfur region on August 1, 2024. Reuters

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation has called for an urgent increase in life-saving food, cash assistance and emergency agricultural aid for Sudan after famine conditions were confirmed in parts of the war-torn country last week.

More than year of fighting between the Sudanese army and a rival paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has plunged the country into its worst food security crisis and created the world's largest internal displacement crisis.

About 755,000 people are facing the acutest levels of hunger, known as Phase 5 under globally accepted Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), including about 500,000 living in North Darfur state where the army and RSF have been locked in a months-long battle around the main city of El Fasher.

International experts in the IPC Famine Review Committee confirmed on Thursday that starvation at the Zamzam camp in North Darfur, where up to 600,000 people shelter, had grown into full famine. A total of 25.6 million people in the country are experiencing high levels of acute hunger – IPC Phases 3 and above.

“We are witnessing horrific famine conditions in parts of North Darfur and an increasing risk of famine in other settlements and conflict-affected areas, especially in Darfur, South Kordofan, Khartoum and Al Jazirah,” FAO director general Qu Dongyu said in a report issued by the UN agency on Monday.

“We have been raising the alarm about this looming catastrophe, yet due to the ongoing conflict and limited humanitarian access these communities are still not getting the immediate support they need. We need urgent, concerted action to prevent an even greater catastrophe from unfolding. Famine can be halted, but the immediate cessation of hostilities is an essential first step. Peace is a prerequisite for food security, and the right to food is a basic human right.”

All attempts to halt the conflict so far have failed, with hopes now resting on talks to be held in Geneva from August 14.

Doctors Without Borders said on Sunday that RSF forces, which have besieged El Fasher, blocked three lorries carrying life saving medical supplies, including therapeutic food, for the city and the nearby Zamzam camp.

RSF fighters had blocked the lorries in the town of Kabkabiya for over a month, the medical group said, forcing it to limit the number of children receiving therapeutic food in the overcrowded camp as its stock of medicine covered only two weeks.

“Deliberately obstructing or delaying humanitarian cargo is putting the lives of thousands of children at-risk as they are cut-off from receiving life-saving treatment,” it said on X.

There was no immediate comment from the RSF.

The FAO said the hunger crisis in Sudan was likely to be exacerbated by above-average rainfall and higher-than-average temperatures predicted across southern and central states in Sudan. The potential flooding may increase the risk of additional crop and livestock losses.

The agency said it has been distributing seeds to 1.2 million farming households for the main planting season, which began in June, including Al Jazirah, Blue Nile, White Nile, the Greater Darfur and Kordofan regions where food insecurity levels are highest. It has also vaccinated more than 2.7 million animals against common livestock diseases so far this year.

The UN's co-ordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, on Friday called for a ceasefire to increase humanitarian access and for greater financial support to prevent large-scale famine in Sudan.

This year’s $2.7 billion Humanitarian Response Plan for Sudan is less than a third funded, with $872 million received as of early August, according to the UN.

Ms Nkweta-Salami said the humanitarian community had been scaling up the response in recent months, but the needs were immense.

“There isn’t a moment to waste,” she said.