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, regional spokesperson for the World Food Programme, said that at least 1.7 million people in Darfur were facing emergency levels of hunger in December, and that the number is “expected to be much higher today”.
“Our calls for humanitarian access to conflict hotspots in Sudan have never been more critical,” she told a virtual UN press conference from Nairobi.
Sudan descended into chaos in mid-April 2023, when long-running tensions between its military 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 spread to other parts of the country, especially urban areas and the Darfur region.
Paramilitary forces, known as the RSF, have gained control of most of Darfur and are besieging El Fasher, the only capital in Darfur they do not control, where around 500,000 civilians have taken refuge.
Kinzli said WFP partners on the ground report that the situation in El Fasher is “extremely dire” and it is difficult for civilians who want to escape reports of RSF shelling and shelling to leave.
She said violence in El Fasher and surrounding North Darfur is exacerbating critical humanitarian needs across the Darfur region, where agricultural production of staple cereals such as wheat, sorghum and maize is 78% 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 between harvests begins and people run out of food.” She said a farmer in El Fasher recently told her that her family had already exhausted its food reserves and was living day to day, an indication that the “lean season,” which typically begins in May, started earlier.
Kinzli said he received photos on Friday from colleagues at the scene 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,” she said.
“People are resorting to eating grass and peanut shells,” Kinzli said. “And if assistance does not reach them soon, we risk seeing widespread starvation and death in Darfur and other conflict-affected areas of Sudan.”
Kinzli called for “a concerted diplomatic effort by the international community to pressure the parties to the conflict to provide guarantees of access and security” to humanitarian personnel and convoys.
“One year of this devastating conflict in Sudan has created an unprecedented hunger catastrophe and threatens to trigger 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 authorization to deliver aid from neighboring Chad to West Darfur and Central Darfur from the city of Adre, alleging that the crossing had been used to transfer weapons to the RSF. Kinzli said restrictions imposed by Sudanese authorities in Port Sudan also prevent WFP from transporting aid through Adre.
Sudanese authorities have approved the delivery of aid from the Chadian town of Tina to north Darfur, but Kinzli said 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 injured three ICRC staff. On Friday, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffith called the killing of humanitarian workers “unjust.”
Kinzli said fighting “and endless bureaucratic obstacles” prevented WFP from providing 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 ready to be transported into Chad, ready to be transported, but is unable to do so due to these restrictions,” she said.
“WFP urgently demands unrestricted access and security guarantees to provide assistance,” she 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 that we can reach the people in this desperate region.”
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