PORT SUDAN: Food aid in Sudan is set to run out by the end of March unless new funding is secured, the United Nations said Thursday, raising fears for millions caught up in the world’s largest hunger crisis.
The warning comes after almost three years of civil war in Sudan, where fighting between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has left tens of thousands dead and 11 million displaced.
“By the end of March, we will have depleted our food stocks in Sudan,” Ross Smith, the World Food Programme’s Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response, said in a statement.
“Without immediate additional funding, millions of people will be left without vital food assistance within weeks,” he added.
Smith said the WFP has already “been forced to reduce rations to the absolute minimum for survival.”
According to the UN, more than 21 million people — almost half of Sudan’s population — are now facing acute food insecurity.
A UN-backed assessment confirmed last year that famine had taken hold in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, which was overrun by the paramilitary forces in October.
Famine has also been confirmed in Kadugli, in neighboring Kordofan, now a key battleground in the conflict.
In Dilling, around 130 kilometers (80 miles) to the north, the UN says civilians are likely experiencing famine conditions, though security issues and a lack of access have prevented a formal declaration.
The UN earlier declared famine in three displacement camps around El-Fasher as well as in parts of the Nuba Mountains in the country’s south.
Sudan food aid to run out in March without new funding, UN warns
https://arab.news/23q45
Sudan food aid to run out in March without new funding, UN warns
- “By the end of March, we will have depleted our food stocks in Sudan,” Smith said
- He said the WFP has already “been forced to reduce rations to the absolute minimum for survival“
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
