A global authority on food security supported by the UN issued a dire warning on Friday, urging immediate action to “avert a catastrophic hunger crisis in Sudan and prevent widespread death and total collapse of livelihoods.”
An update to the December analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which revealed that about five million people were in danger of going hungry, was supposed to be released. But the conflict prevented it from doing so.
Rather, the IPC stated that it examined the most recent data available and released the notice on Friday “to express major concern” on the worsening circumstances and to urge prompt action “to prevent famine.
On April 15, 2023, the Sudanese army (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) went to war in Sudan. According to the UN, eight million people have fled their homes and about 25 million people, or half of Sudan’s population, require relief.
“Without an immediate cessation of hostilities and significant deployment of humanitarian assistance … the population of Khartoum and Gezira States, Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan, is at risk of reaching the worst levels of acute food insecurity and malnutrition during the upcoming lean season starting from April – May 2024,” the IPC stated on Friday.
This month, the UN Security Council demanded that hostilities end immediately. On Thursday, the US issued a warning, threatening to force the council to act to provide starving people with food.
Nearly five million individuals, including 3.6 million children under the age of five and 1.2 million pregnant and nursing mothers, were considered by the IPC to be severely malnourished.
Due to fighting in primary agricultural production areas during the height of harvest season, it was projected that cereal production was 46% lower than the previous year, and food prices in marketplaces were 73% higher than they were during the same period the previous year.
