UNITED NATIONS –
The United Nations food agency warned Sudan’s warring parties on Friday that there is a serious risk of widespread famine and death in Darfur and other parts of Sudan if they do not allow humanitarian aid into the vast western region.
Leni Kinzli, a regional spokesperson for the World Food Programme, said at least 1.7 million people in Darfur were experiencing emergency levels of hunger in December, and the number “is expected to be much higher today.”
“Our calls for humanitarian access to conflict hotspots in Sudan have never been more critical,” he told a virtual UN news conference from Nairobi.
Sudan descended into chaos in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its army led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo erupted into street battles in the capital. , Khartoum. The fighting has spread to other parts of the country, especially urban areas and the Darfur region.
Paramilitary forces, known as RSF, have gained control of most of Darfur and are laying siege to El Fasher, the only Darfur capital they do not control, where some 500,000 civilians have taken refuge.
Kinzli said WFP partners on the ground report that the situation in El Fasher is “extremely serious” and that it is difficult for civilians wishing to flee reported RSF shelling and shelling to leave.
He said the violence in El Fasher and surrounding North Darfur is exacerbating critical humanitarian needs across the Darfur region, where production of staple grains such as wheat, sorghum and millet is 78 percent below the five-year average. years.
In addition to the impact of escalating violence, Kinzli said, “WFP is concerned that hunger will increase dramatically as the lean season hits between harvests and people run out of food.” He said a farmer in El Fasher recently told him that his family had already run out of food reserves and is living hand-to-mouth, an indication that the “lean season,” which usually begins in May, began earlier.
Kinzli said that early Friday he received photographs from colleagues on the ground of severely malnourished children in a camp for displaced people in Central Darfur, as well as elderly people “who have nothing left but skin and bones.”
“Recent reports from our partners indicate that 20 children have died in recent weeks from malnutrition in that IDP camp,” he said.
“People are turning to eating grass and peanut shells,” Kinzli said. “And if aid does not reach them soon, we risk seeing widespread famine and death in Darfur and other conflict-affected areas in Sudan.”
Kinzli called for “a concerted diplomatic effort by the international community to pressure warring parties to provide access and security guarantees” for humanitarian personnel and convoys.
“A year of this devastating conflict in Sudan has created an unprecedented hunger catastrophe and threatens to spark the world’s largest hunger crisis,” he warned. “With nearly 28 million people facing food insecurity in Sudan, South Sudan and Chad, the conflict is spreading and exacerbating the challenges we have already faced over the past year.”
In March, Sudanese authorities revoked WFP’s permission to deliver aid from neighboring Chad to Western Darfur and Central Darfur from the city of Adre, claiming the crossing had been used to transfer weapons to the RSF. Kinzli said restrictions by Sudanese authorities in Port Sudan also prevent the WFP from transporting aid through Adre.
Sudanese authorities approved the delivery of aid from the Chadian city of Tina to North Darfur, but Kinzli said the WFP can no longer use that route for security reasons because it goes directly to besieged El Fasher.
On Thursday, gunmen in South Darfur killed two International Committee of the Red Cross drivers and wounded three ICRC staff. On Friday, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffith called the killing of aid workers “unconscionable.”
Kinzli said fighting “and endless bureaucratic obstacles” have prevented the WFP from delivering aid to more than 700,000 people in Darfur before the rainy season, when many roads become impassable.
“WFP currently has 8,000 tonnes of food supplies ready to move to Chad, ready to transport, but cannot do so due to these limitations,” he said.
“WFP urgently needs unrestricted access and security guarantees to deliver assistance,” he said. “And we must be able to use the Adre border crossing and move assistance across the front lines from Port Sudan in the east to Darfur, so we can reach the people of this desperate region.”