Sudan grapples with biting hunger pangs as one-year civil war persists
A handout photograph, shot in January 2024, shows a woman and baby at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan. PHOTO | MSF via REUTERS
In the dusty, war-ravaged outskirts of North Darfur, a mother at the Zamzam camp cradles her emaciated child, her eyes hollow with exhaustion and fear. Fatima, a 32-year-old widow, once led a simple but stable life, selling groceries at a local market in El Fasher, the besieged capital of her homeland.
Today, her life, like those of nearly 25.6 million other Sudanese, is a daily struggle for survival, uncertain where their next meal will come from.
More than half (54 percent) of Sudan’s population—25.6 million people—are currently facing crisis levels of hunger.
“Famine was reported as ongoing as early as in July 2024. The IPC Famine Review Committee concluded that famine is ongoing in the Zamzam Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in North Darfur due to heightened hostilities and a lack of humanitarian access. The famine is projected to last until the end of October. While uncertainty remains, the likelihood of famine beyond October remains high in Zamzam camp and many other areas, as long as the conflict and limited humanitarian access persist,” stated Charity Mumbua, statistics specialist at ICPAC, during the launch of this year’s Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) Regional Focus of the 2024-Global Report on Food Crises, released on Thursday.
The IPC assessed a risk of famine in 14 areas, five localities and nine clusters of IDPs and refugees in Greater Darfur, Greater Kordofan, Al-Gazira State, and some hotspots in Khartoum.
The outlook is even grimmer, with an estimated 755,300 people projected to reach the critical catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) stage during the lean season leading up to September, a sharp increase from zero in 2023. IPC Phase 5 represents the most severe level of food insecurity, where individuals face extreme destitution, starvation, acute malnutrition, and a high risk of death after exhausting all their coping mechanisms.
In fact, according to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development-IGAD Regional Focus of the 2024-Global Report on Food Crises, released on Thursday, across seven of the eight Igad member states, Sudan, a nation torn apart by over a year of relentless warfare, has become the epicentre of the world’s worst hunger crisis.
Many, like Fatuma and her three children, wake up each day uncertain of where their next meal will come from as escalating hostilities and restricted humanitarian access persist.
The situation is worsened by the collapse of local economies and the breakdown of supply chains, rendering even necessities inaccessible to the average person, as heavy fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (Saf) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023 has had devastating consequences across Sudan.
Conflict in Sudan has devastated livelihoods, disrupted basic services, and triggered the world’s largest internal displacement crisis. In Sudan, by May 2024, national average prices of key staples were more than double the levels of May 2023 as conflict severely impacted food production and supply systems.
Conflict remains, by far and away, the main driver of food crises, affecting the largest number of people.
Last year, global conflict escalated, with particularly severe impacts in Sudan and Pakistan. Out of 20 countries where conflict was the main driver of food insecurity, Sudan, was most affected,” noted Sarah McHattie, global coordinator at the Food Security Information Network, on Thursday last week.
“Countries where conflict is a primary driver are not only more susceptible to food crises but also face increased vulnerability to economic and weather-related shocks.”
According to Igad’s regional focus on member states, acute food insecurity has worsened for the fifth consecutive year, primarily due to the conflict-driven humanitarian crisis in Sudan. Without this emergency, the hunger outlook was on a stable path to improvement, aided by positive developments in Kenya and Somalia.
In the Igad region, which includes Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, approximately 62.9 million people—more than a quarter of the 287 million population—are expected to face high levels of acute food insecurity in 2024.
This marks an increase from 61.9 million, or 24 percent of the population, in 2023.
Sudan has the highest number of people facing severe acute food insecurity, with 25.6 million affected, followed by Ethiopia, with 21 to 22 million, and South Sudan, with 7.1 million.
In contrast, improvements have been observed in Kenya, Somalia, and South Sudan, where the number of people experiencing acute food insecurity has decreased by 3.5 million, 2.6 million, and 0.6 million, respectively, compared to 2023.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia and Uganda are also seeing an increase in people facing high levels of acute food insecurity in 2024 compared to 2023, while South Sudan has slightly fewer, thanks to favourable 2023/24 harvests. In terms of prevalence, together with Sudan (54 percent), SS has the highest prevalence, with well over half (56 percent) of their population in need of urgent food and livelihood assistance.
Four Igad member states—Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and South Sudan—are among the 10 countries with the highest numbers of acutely malnourished children.
“At the moment, 11.4 million children under the age of five years are estimated to be acutely nourished in the region. 2.8 million of them severely so. High numbers of acutely malnourished children are found in Ethiopia with 4.1 million, and Sudan with 3.7 million, followed by Somalia, South Sudan, and Kenya,” said Mumbua, “While 3.9 million pregnant and lactating women are also estimated to suffer acute malnutrition in the region.”
Economic shocks, adverse macroeconomic conditions, characterized by local currency depreciation, low foreign currency reserves, a high public debt burden and volatile food prices have continued to restrict food access across nearly all countries in the region. In 2024 conflicts and cattle raiding also affected parts of Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda and Kenya.
The Igad region has the highest number of forcibly displaced people globally in 2024, with 25.2 million, including 20.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 5 million refugees and asylum seekers. Sudan leads with 10.7 million IDPs, followed by Somalia (3.9 million) and Ethiopia (3.7 million).
Displaced populations face heightened food insecurity and malnutrition due to limited livelihood opportunities.
