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Famine is spreading in Sudan and likely to continue well into the New Year, an international monitoring organization has concluded.
Twenty months into a civil war, Sudan “continues to slide into a widening famine crisis characterized by widespread starvation and a significant surge in acute malnutrition,” said a new report from the Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
The Famine Review Committee -- the FRC -- is a global partnership that provides food security and nutrition analyses for decision-making in over 30 countries facing food crises.
The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces broke out in April 2023 and has led to millions of people fleeing their homes – both as internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees to neighboring countries.
Half the population without food
Famine exists in at least five areas of Sudan: Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al Salam camps in North Darfur and both residents and IDPs in the Western Nuba mountains, the FRC said.
The FRC projects that five additional areas will face famine between December and May.
“Furthermore, there is a risk of Famine in seventeen additional areas. Half of the population (24.6 million people) is facing high levels of acute food insecurity,” the FRC said. “This marks an unprecedented deepening and widening of the food and nutrition crisis, driven by the devastating conflict, which has triggered unprecedented mass displacement, a collapsing economy, the breakdown of essential social services, and severe societal disruptions, combined with poor humanitarian access. Food insecurity and malnutrition have reached these unprecedented levels of severity despite the mitigating effects of the ongoing harvest season.”
Conditions are anticipated to worsen as food stocks will likely be exhausted ahead of the usual lean season, the FRC said.
“This lean season is expected to begin unusually early, well before May. … The ongoing conflict is expected to further constrain food supply chains, while the purchasing power of IDPs is projected to decline further.”
The organization also warned that in areas forecasted to experience famine conditions, the healthcare system has largely collapsed, and access to sanitation and hygiene services is critically undermined.
Famine was first declared in Sudan in August.
