Sudan, where famine looms after almost a year of war, is suffering “one of the worst humanitarian disasters” in recent history, a United Nations (UN) official warned on Wednesday March 20, denouncing the lack of action by the international community.
“By any measure, [whether] the scale of humanitarian needs [or] the number of people displaced and threatened by hunger, Sudan [is] experiencing one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory,” he said. launched before the United Nations Security Council, Edem Wosornu, on behalf of the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Martin Griffiths. “A humanitarian travesty is playing out in Sudan, behind a veil of international inattention and inaction. To put it simply, we are failing the Sudanese people,” she denounced, describing the “despair” of the population.
The fighting, which has raged since April 15, 2023 between the army of General Abdel Fattah Al-Bourhane and the Rapid Support Forces (FSR, paramilitary) of General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, former number two in power, has killed thousands of dead and more than 8 million displaced, according to the UN. In early March, the Security Council called for an “immediate” ceasefire during Ramadan and unhindered access to humanitarian aid. But, “since then, I am sorry to say that there has been no major progress on the ground,” lamented Ms. Wosornu.
$47 million in aid
The United States subsequently announced new humanitarian aid of $47 million (€43 million). These funds will go to countries neighboring Sudan, including Chad and South Sudan, to help them welcome Sudanese refugees, said American diplomat Julieta Valls Noyes during a meeting with the Chadian prime minister.
Nearly 18 million Sudanese face severe food insecurity (phase 3 and above of the IPC food insecurity classification scale, which has five stages), a record number during harvest time – that’s 10 million more than the same period last year. And 730,000 children suffer from acute malnutrition. In a memo seen by Agence France-Presse and sent to the Security Council last week, Griffiths warned that 5 million Sudanese “could slide into catastrophic food insecurity in parts of the country in the coming months.”
“If we want to prevent Sudan from becoming the world’s worst food crisis, coordinated efforts (…) are urgent and essential,” declared Wednesday the deputy director of the World Food Program (WFP), Carl Skau, emphasizing the “risk high” to see Sudanese move into IPC phase 5 (starvation) with the arrival of the “lean season” in May.
Malnutrition “is already costing the lives of children,” denounced Ms. Wosornu. And “our humanitarian partners estimate that, in the coming weeks or months, some 222,000 children could die of malnutrition,” she insisted, also referring to the risk for weakened children of dying from preventable diseases, while more than 70% of healthcare facilities are no longer functioning.