Nearly 230,000 children and women who are pregnant or have just given birth “risk dying of hunger” in Sudan, torn apart by nearly a year of war between rival generals, warned the NGO Save the Children in a press release on Wednesday March 13.
The fighting has left thousands dead and eight million displaced, according to the United Nations (UN), and plunged Sudan into “one of the worst nutritional situations in the world”, explains Arif Noor, local director of Save the Children, cited in the press release. According to the non-governmental organization (NGO), “more than 2.9 million children are malnourished and an additional 729,000 children under the age of 5 suffer from severe malnutrition,” the deadliest form of hunger.
At the beginning of March, the World Food Program (WFP) was already warning: the war “could create the largest hunger crisis in the world” in a country which is already experiencing the largest population displacement crisis on the globe. Bombing of civilians, destruction of infrastructure, rape, looting, forced displacement and burning of villages have become daily life for the 48 million Sudanese.
A war that could last for years
For Mr. Noor, the consequences are long-term: “No agricultural season last year means no food today. No planting today means no food tomorrow. » “The cycle of hunger continues to worsen with no end in sight, only more misery,” he adds, while more than half of Sudanese, including 14 million children, are currently in need. humanitarian aid to survive, according to the UN.
The war – which could last years, experts say – between the army and the feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has pushed 18 million Sudanese into acute food insecurity, with 5 million reaching the final tier before starvation. In this context, the international community is struggling to finance aid to displaced people, refugees, wounded and other victims of sexual violence, while international justice is concerned about “war crimes”.
Humanitarians, prevented from entering or moving around by authorities and attacked by both camps, repeat that they have received only 5.5% of their funding needs to face hunger.
