Sudan is suffering from a “hunger crisis of historic proportions,” several NGOs warn

They call on the international community to take “urgent” action to address the “immense hunger crisis” in the African country

September 3 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Several non-governmental organisations warned on Tuesday that Sudan is suffering from “a hunger crisis of historic proportions” after almost a year and a half of war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and have deplored the “deafening silence” on the part of the international community.

“We cannot be clearer. Sudan is facing a hunger crisis of historic proportions,” the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Danish Refugee Council and Mercy Corps said in a joint statement, in which they made an “urgent” appeal to the international community to “address the immense hunger crisis in the country.”

“The silence is deafening. People are dying of hunger every day, and yet the focus remains on semantic debates and legal definitions,” they said, while lamenting that “all opportunities to avoid the worst situation have been wasted and now the people of Sudan are facing a crisis unprecedented in recent decades.”

They said that at a time when “the peak of the lean season is approaching, widespread death and suffering are increasing throughout the country.” “Children are dying of hunger,” they said, before pointing out that more than 25 million people, or more than half of the population, suffer from acute food insecurity.

“Many families have been forced for months to eat only once a day and to feed on leaves or insects. The people of Sudan have shown immense resilience and strength over the past 17 months: they now have nowhere to go,” the organisations reiterated.

In this regard, they stressed that “international attention and action has been little and late” and pointed out that the Humanitarian Response Plan for 2024 is only 41 percent funded, “with much of the funding arriving too late to prevent avoidable deaths from hunger.”

“Pressure must be applied to ensure that humanitarian aid flows and reaches those who will otherwise pay with their lives,” they said, adding that NGO teams in the country “have spoken of the enormous loss of life resulting from the extreme violence that is gripping the country and are now reporting that famine will likely eclipse that death toll.”

“The conflict has had a significant impact on food production, destroying the agricultural and livestock sectors,” the NGOs lamented, adding that their staff “also witnessed the large-scale use of food as a weapon in areas controlled by both parties to the conflict.”

They said that “around 1.78 million people were denied access to critical humanitarian aid in June due to logistical constraints, arbitrary refusals and bureaucratic obstacles,” while “even when aid does arrive, it is in such short supply that meager individual rations are divided among groups of people.”

“In some places, families of ten people have received two kilos of millet for a whole month, which is not even enough for three days. This is the situation of many people in the ‘lucky’ areas where some aid reaches,” they said.

They stressed that “it is impossible to put into words the level of suffering endured by the Sudanese people over the past few months” and stressed that “their endurance and resilience will be in vain if they continue to look the other way.” “Indifference must end,” they added.

Sudan is in the throes of a civil war following hostilities that broke out in April 2023 amid heightened tensions over the integration of the RSF into the armed forces, a key part of an agreement signed in December to form a new civilian government and revive the open transition following the 2019 overthrow of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, damaged by the coup d’état of October 2021, in which Prime Minister of Unity Abdallah Hamdok was overthrown.