UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations food agency warned Sudan’s warring parties Friday that there is a serious risk of widespread starvation and death in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan if they do not allow humanitarian aid into the vast western region.
Leni Kinzli, regional spokeswoman for the World Food Program, said that at least 1.7 million people in Darfur were suffering from famine 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 important,” she told a virtual UN news conference in Nairobi.
Sudan plunged into chaos in mid-April 2023 when long-simmering tensions between its military, led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, erupted in street battles in the capital, Khartoum. Fighting has spread to other parts of the country, particularly urban areas and the Darfur region.
The paramilitary forces known as the RSF have seized control of most of Darfur and are laying siege to El Fasher, Darfur’s only capital they do not control, where some 500,000 civilians had sought refuge.
Kinzli said WFP’s partners on the ground report that the situation in El Fasher is “extremely dire” and it is difficult for civilians seeking to flee reported RSF bombings and shelling to leave the country.
She said the violence in El Fasher and surrounding North Darfur was exacerbating urgent humanitarian needs across the Darfur region, where crop production for staple grains such as wheat, sorghum and millet was 78% below the five-year average.
In addition to the impact of the escalating violence, Kinzli said: “WFP is concerned that hunger will increase dramatically as the lean season between harvests sets in and people run out of food.” She said a farmer in El Fasher recently told her , that her family had already run out of food supplies and had to live from day to day, an indication that the “stomach season”, which usually begins in May, had begun earlier.
Kinzli said she received photos from colleagues on the ground on Friday of severely malnourished children in a camp for displaced people in central Darfur, as well as elderly people “who have nothing but skin and bones.”
“Recent reports from our partners indicate that 20 children have died of malnutrition in this refugee camp in the last few weeks,” she said.
“People resort to eating grass and peanut shells,” Kinzli said. “And if aid doesn’t reach them soon, we risk seeing widespread starvation and death in Darfur and other conflict-affected areas in Sudan.”
Kinzli called for “a concerted diplomatic effort by the international community to urge the warring parties to ensure access and security guarantees” for humanitarian personnel and convoys.
“A year of this devastating conflict in Sudan has resulted in an unprecedented hunger catastrophe and threatens to trigger the world’s worst hunger crisis,” she warned. “With nearly 28 million people in Sudan, South Sudan and Chad suffering from food insecurity, the conflict is expanding and exacerbating the challenges we have already faced over the last year.”
In March, Sudanese authorities revoked WFP’s permission to deliver aid from neighboring Chad to West Darfur and Central Darfur from the town of Adre, saying the crossing had been used to transfer arms to the RSF. Kinzli said restrictions by Sudanese authorities in Port Sudan are also preventing WFP from transporting aid through Adre.
Sudanese authorities approved the delivery of aid from the Chadian town of Tina to North Darfur, but Kinzli said WFP could no longer use that route for security reasons as it led directly to the besieged El Fasher.
On Thursday, gunmen killed two International Committee of the Red Cross drivers and injured three ICRC workers in South Darfur. On Friday, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffith called the killing of aid workers “unconscionable.”
Kinzli said the fighting “and endless bureaucratic hurdles” had prevented the WFP from providing aid to over 700,000 people in Darfur ahead of the rainy season, when many roads become impassable.
“WFP currently has 8,000 tonnes of food supplies that can be transported to Chad, but cannot do so due to these restrictions,” she said.
“WFP urgently needs full access and security guarantees to provide assistance,” she said. “And we must be able to use the Adre border crossing and transport aid across the front lines from Port Sudan in the east to Darfur so that we can reach the people of this desperate region.”