‘Imminent risk of famine’ in Sudan, warn UN relief chiefs

More than a year into a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), United Nations agencies declared on Friday that the people of Sudan are at “imminent risk of famine”.

According to a joint statement by U.N. officials, Volker Turk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, about 18 million people are already critically hungry, including 3.6 million children who are acutely malnourished.

“Time is running out for millions of people in Sudan who are at imminent risk of famine, displaced from their lands, living under bombardments, and cut off from humanitarian assistance,” the statement continued.

In April 2023, fighting began in the nation’s capital, Khartoum, and swiftly expanded throughout the nation, igniting ethnic violence in the western Darfur region and creating the biggest displacement catastrophe in history, with millions of people being forced to escape.

“We will face a nightmare scenario: A famine will take hold in large parts of the country,” stated the declaration, which was also signed by U.N. relief head Martin Griffiths. “Without an immediate and major step change, that is.”

Long-simmering tensions about the RSF’s integration into the army culminated in the start of the war. According to the U.N. special adviser on genocide prevention, there is a chance of genocide in some areas of Darfur, as stated last week.

In March, a report supported by the United Nations declared that urgent action was required to “avert a catastrophic hunger crisis in Sudan and prevent widespread death and total collapse of livelihoods.”