More than 750,000 people in Sudan at risk of starving: Global Hunger Monitor | News about humanitarian crises

The United Nations’ hunger monitoring system says there is a risk of famine in 14 areas of Sudan if the conflict escalates.

There is a risk of famine in 14 areas of Sudan if conflict between military factions escalates, a global hunger monitor has said, noting that the country faces “the worst levels of acute food insecurity” ever recorded in the country.

In its assessment published on Thursday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said that after more than a year of war, around 755,000 people face a “catastrophe”, the most serious level of extreme hunger, while 8.5 million people, or 18 percent, of the population, face food shortages that can result in acute malnutrition and death.

The conflict began in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under the command of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo .

An increase in fighting would further restrict aid access to threatened areas, the United Nations famine monitoring system said, warning of the realistic possibility of famine in several areas, including parts of Darfur, Khartoum, Kordofan and Gezira states.

The IPC stated that approximately 25.6 million people could experience high levels of acute food insecurity between June and September.

#Sudan alert!

14 months after the start of the conflict, Sudan faces the worst levels of acute crisis #foodinsecurity already registered by the IPC in the country.

Read more : pic.twitter.com/Dm8LzRwl64

— The Integrated Food Safety Phase Classification (@theIPCinfo) June 27, 2024

Since the IPC alert system was created 20 years ago, famine has only been declared twice: in parts of Somalia in 2011 and in parts of South Sudan in 2017.

Reporting from Omdurman, Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said many people in Sudan rely on community kitchens to survive after conflict broke out in April last year.

“More than half of working-age Sudanese worked in non-formal sectors before the conflict. The lack of access to these jobs as fighting continues means many have lost their income,” Morgan said, adding that the fighting has also limited supply in markets and increased food costs.

This combination means many people “can no longer afford to feed their families,” she said.

Taj Elsir Abdel-Daim, a day laborer from Omdurman, told Al Jazeera that he lost his job and was forced to move his family several times because of the conflict. They now stay in a school that houses displaced people.

“I came here [to a community kitchen] daily and sometimes go to other kitchens to have two meals a day,” he said.

More than 10 million people have been displaced in Sudan, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in June, and 7.26 million people have fled their homes. This is in addition to the 2.83 million individuals already displaced by previous conflicts.

More than a quarter of Sudan’s 48 million residents have now been forced to flee their homes, with more than two million crossing international borders.