According to the latest United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative, more than half the population in Sudan – 25.6 million people – face a “crisis” situation. or worse” (Phase 3 and above) from now until September 2024 – coinciding with the lean period. season.
Worse still, 755,000 people face “disaster” (Phase 5) conditions in 10 states, including the five states of Greater Darfur, as well as South and North Kordofan, Blue Nile, Al Jazirah and Khartoum, while a total of 8.5 million people – 18 percent of the population – are now suffering from “Emergency” (Phase 4) levels of food insecurity.
The war shook the country
The risk of famine threatens residents, those displaced by war and refugees in no less than 14 areas including Greater Darfur, Greater Kordofan, Al Jazirah states and the hotspots of Khartoum.if the conflict escalates further, including through increased mobilization of local militias further disrupting movement, humanitarian assistance, markets and livelihoods,” The IPC assessment warned.
A call to action by UN agency leaders
Reacting to the IPC findings, the three heads of the UN agency warned that a catastrophic famine was imminent “on a scale not seen since the Darfur crisis of the early 2000s” – implying pointing to years of brutal fighting and increasing brutality there that left some 300,000 people dead. and millions of others were displaced.
Unlike the Darfur crisis then, today’s emergency is spreading across the country, with catastrophic levels of famine even reaching the capital Khartoum and Gezira state, once Sudan’s breadbasket.
Struggling to make ends meet every day
In a warning, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP)
say “For half of Sudan’s war-torn population, every day is a struggle to feed themselves and their families.”
The agency heads emphasized that this is the first time that catastrophic/Phase 5 conditions have been confirmed in Sudan since the IPC’s establishment in 2004, while children have suffered the consequences of “the “Rapid deterioration” in food security has been “torn apart” by 14 months of war between rival armies.
These three agencies have repeatedly warned of the crisis and have mobilized a large-scale humanitarian response in Sudan and neighboring countries, where more than two million refugees are seeking safety.
End of the war
They stressed that “There is a need for an immediate ceasefire and renewed international efforts – both diplomatic and financial – as well as continued and unimpeded humanitarian access to enable further expansion.” humanitarian response activities and enable agencies to do so with the necessary speed.”
This new data shows a sharp deterioration in food security in Sudan compared to the most recent IPC report in December 2023, which found that 17.7 million people face acute hunger ( IPC Phase 3+).
This includes almost five million people at emergency hunger levels (IPC Phase 4) while today’s assessment shows that number has increased to 8.5 million.
“New IPC analysis shows that the food security situation in Sudan is rapidly deteriorating, with millions of lives at risk,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu. “We are currently providing life-saving seeds for the main planting season. The clock is ticking for Sudanese farmers. FAO urgently requests $60 million to meet unfunded parts of the Plan to Stop Famine to ensure that people – especially those in hard-to-reach areas – can produce food locally and prevent food shortages in the next six months.”
“We must act collectively, on a massive scale, with unhindered access, for the benefit of millions of innocent lives at stake,” he added.
