According to the latest UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative, more than half of Sudan's population (25.6 million people) face “crisis or worse” conditions (Phase 3 or higher) between now and September 2024, coinciding with food shortages. season.
Worse still, 755,000 people face “catastrophic” conditions (Phase 5) in 10 states, including the five states of Greater Darfur, as well as North and South Kordofan, Blue Nile, Al Jazirah and Khartoum, while 8, 5 million people (18 percent of the population – now suffer “emergency” levels of food insecurity (Phase 4).
War leaves country reeling
The risk of famine threatens residents, people uprooted by war and refugees in no less than 14 areas spanning Greater Darfur, Greater Kordofan, Al Jazirah states and Khartoum hotspots.”if the conflict escalates further, including through increased mobilization of local militias that further disrupt mobility, humanitarian assistance, market and livelihood activities,” warned the CPI evaluation.
Call to action from heads of UN agencies
In response to the CPI findings, three UN agency heads warned that the looming hunger catastrophe was “on a scale not seen since the Darfur crisis of the early 2000s,” referring to years of brutal fighting and escalating atrocities there that left some 300,000 people dead. and millions more displaced people.
Unlike the Darfur crisis then, the current emergency is spreading across the country, with catastrophic levels of hunger reaching even the capital, Khartoum, and the state of Gezira, once the breadbasket of Sudan.
Daily struggle to eat
On alert, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations
said that”For half of Sudan's war-torn population, every day is a struggle to feed themselves and their families.
Agency heads highlighted that this is the first time catastrophic/Phase 5 conditions have been confirmed in Sudan since the start of the CPI in 2004, while children are the most affected by the “rapid deterioration” of food security that has been “torn” by 14 months of war between rival armies.
The three agencies have repeatedly warned of the crisis and have already mobilized a large-scale humanitarian response within Sudan and in neighboring countries where more than two million refugees have sought safety.
End the fight
“An immediate ceasefire and renewed international efforts – both diplomatic and financial – as well as sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access are urgently needed to allow the humanitarian response to expand further and for agencies to act at the necessary speed. “they insisted. .
This new data shows a marked deterioration in food security in Sudan compared to the last IPC report in December 2023, which showed 17.7 million people facing acute hunger (IPC Phase 3+).
This included nearly five million people in emergency hunger levels (IPC Phase 4), while today's assessment indicates that number has increased to 8.5 million.
“The new IPC analysis revealed a rapid and deepening deterioration of the food security situation in Sudan, with the lives of millions of people at risk,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu. “We are now delivering life-saving seeds for the main planting season. The clock is ticking for Sudan's farmers. FAO urgently needs $60 million to cover unfunded parts of its Famine Prevention Plan to ensure that people – especially those in inaccessible areas – can produce food locally and avoid food shortages in the next six months.”
He added: “We must act collectively, at scale, with unimpeded access, for the sake of millions of innocent lives at stake.”
