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famine review committee
Sudan Famine a 'Shameful Stain on Our Collective Conscience,' Says Top UN Official
"Let me be clear: It is still possible to stop this freight train of suffering that is charging through Sudan. But only if we respond with the urgency that this moment demands."
Aug 06, 2024
In an urgent appeal for financial and other resources, two top United Nations human rights officials on Tuesday condemned the world's inadequate response to a nascent famine in Sudan.
The U.N. Famine Review Committee announced last week that famine now exists in the Zamzam refugee camp near al-Fashir in North Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Sudanese are sheltering amid 15 months of a civil war that's displaced more than 10 million people and cut off delivery of desperately needed food and other aid.
Other parts of Sudan—including Greater Darfur, South Kordofan, and Khartoum—are at risk of famine.
"This announcement should stop all of us cold because when famine happens, it means we are too late," Edem Wosornu, director of the Operations and Advocacy Division at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said Tuesday.
"It means we did not do enough. It means we, the international community, have failed," she added, pointing to the numerous warnings of imminent famine over recent months. "This is an entirely man-made crisis and a shameful stain on our collective conscience."
As U.N. News reported:
The Sudanese National Army and a rival, formerly allied military, known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have been battling since April 2023, pushing "millions of civilians into a quagmire of violence and with it, death, injury, and inhumane suffering treatment."
A staggering 26 million people are facing acute hunger... More than 10 million people have been forced to flee their homes, including some 726,000 displaced from Sennar state following recent RSF advances.
Sudan's once vibrant capital, Khartoum, now lies in ruins, the national healthcare system has collapsed, and recent heavy rains in Kassala and North Darfur have increased the risk of cholera and other waterborne diseases. An entire generation of children is missing out on a second straight year of education.
"Let me be clear: It is still possible to stop this freight train of suffering that is charging through Sudan," Wosornu stressed. "But only if we respond with the urgency that this moment demands."
Justin Brady, who heads OCHA's Sudan office, toldU.N. News on Monday that "if we don't have enough resources and we don't have enough access, it is going to be very difficult to stop famine conditions from taking hold" in other parts of Sudan.
"Access continues to be a major problem," he continued. "And some donors have seen that and said, well, we'll give you funding when you get access."
"Second of all, when we do get access, we need to take advantage of those openings very quickly," Brady added. "If we don't, they will close very quickly. So not having enough resources... Our appeal for this year is only a third funded, under $900 million received."
Echoing Brady, Wosornu said that "we are pushing from every possible angle to stop this catastrophe from getting worse, but we cannot go very far without the access and resources we need."
Wosornu outlined the humanitarian community's four key demands:
- Warring parties must end the conflict;
- They must uphold their obligations under international law;
- They must allow rapid, safe, and unimpeded humanitarian access across all possible routes; and
- The international community must provide adequate funding—OCHA is seeking $2.7 billion—to support aid operations.
"Assistance delayed is assistance denied for the many Sudanese civilians who are literally dying of hunger during the time it takes for clearances to come through, permits to be granted, and flood waters to subside," Wosornu warned.
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'Confirming UN Agencies' Worst Fears,' Famine Declared in Sudan Refugee Camp
"We urgently need a massive expansion of humanitarian access so we can halt the famine that has taken hold in North Darfur and stop it sweeping across Sudan," said the head of the World Food Program.
Aug 01, 2024
Following 15 months of civil war in Sudan that's displaced more than 10 million people and blocked the delivery of food to desperately hungry Sudanese, the United Nations Famine Review Committee said Thursday that famine now exists in a camp housing hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced people in North Darfur.
The Famine Review Committee (FRC) published a report "confirming U.N. agencies' worst fears" about the arrival of a long-forewarned famine in the Zamzam camp. It's the committee's first famine determination in more than seven years, and only its third since its current monitoring system was created 20 years ago.
FRC warned that "other parts of Sudan risk famine if concerted action is not taken," citing a June analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)—which oversees the committee—"showing a dramatic decline in food and nutrition security" and 755,000 people "facing catastrophic conditions" in 10 Sudanese states.
Unlike the reigonalized Darfur conflict of a generation ago, the current hunger crisis is affecting almost all of Sudan, including the capital Khartoum. Fighting between rival factions of Sudan's military government broke out in April 2023 and spread rapidly throughout the northeastern African nation of 46 million people. The Sudanese Armed Forces—the official state military—is fighting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and is refusing to issue permits for U.N. food aid trucks to pass through RSF-controlled territory.
"We urgently need a massive expansion of humanitarian access so we can halt the famine that has taken hold in North Darfur and stop it sweeping across Sudan," U.N. World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain said Thursday. "The warring parties must lift all restrictions and open new supply routes across borders, and across conflict lines, so relief agencies can get to cut-off communities with desperately needed food and other humanitarian aid."
"I also call on the international community to act now to secure a cease-fire in this brutal conflict and end Sudan's slide into famine," McCain added. "It is the only way we will reverse a humanitarian catastrophe that is destabilizing this entire region of Africa."
In Khartoum, hundreds of thousands of people are struggling to find food. People venturing outside of their homes in search of food run the risk of being shot or shelled. Fighting around Sinja, the capital of Sennar state, has fueled mass displacement and cut off crucial aid routes.
"Worse yet, the war in Sudan has by now displaced an astounding 10 million people from their homes, more than 4 million of them children—a figure that looks like but isn't a misprint," Priti Gulati Cox and Stan Cox wrote for TomDispatch this week. "Many have had to move multiple times and 2 million Sudanese have taken refuge in neighboring countries. Worse yet, with so many people forced off their land and away from their workplaces, the capacity of farmers to till the soil and other kinds of workers to hold down a paycheck and to buy food for their families has been severely disrupted."
Even Jazirah state—which is located between the Blue and White Nile rivers and is known as Sudan's breadbasket—is now suffering from emergency levels of food insecurity.
Some areas of Darfur haven't received any food aid in over a year as fighting has rendered it practically impossible for humanitarian workers to operate. According to a February report by Doctors Without Borders, one child is dying of starvation every two hours, and nearly 40% of infants and toddlers are malnourished.
"This famine is fully man-made," United Nations Children's Fund Executive Director Catherine Russell said Thursday. "We again call on all the parties to provide the humanitarian system with unimpeded and safe access to children and families in need. We must be able to use all routes, across lines of conflict and borders."
"Sudan's children cannot wait," she added. "They need protection, basic services, and most of all, a cease-fire and peace."
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