The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said that the number of highly food-insecure people in Sudan has nearly doubled in which the ongoing war between the military and the Rapid Support Forces has displaced around four million people, internally and abroad, AFP reported.
“According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase (IPC) projections, over 20.3 million people, representing more than 42 percent of the population in the country, are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above) between July and September 2023. Compared to the results from the last IPC analysis conducted in May 2022, the number of highly food-insecure people has nearly doubled.”
Nearly 6.3 million people are facing Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of acute hunger, “the situation is critical.”
FAO added, “The states most severely affected are grappling with active conflict, including Khartoum, South and West Kordofan, and Central, East, South and West Darfur, where over half of the population is facing acute hunger.”
The fighting broke out on April 15 between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), since which a minimum of 3,900 have been killed. The clashes flared mainly in the capital and its suburbs, in Darfur, and in some southern areas.
The war also uprooted millions of Sudanese who wanted to escape the violence.
The UN's International Organization for Migration reported that more than three million people have been internally displaced while one million people left the country.
FAO's Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa, Abdulhakim Elwaer, expressed his deep concern about the situation, stating, "The conflict has had devastating consequences on the food and nutrition security and well-being of millions of people. Families are facing unimaginable suffering, and it is vital that FAO is stepping in to support more than 1 million farmers this season to produce enough food for Sudanese people."
The fighting continued Wednesday in the capital. The state television released an audio recording by Sudan's Armed Forces Spokesman, Brigadier General Nabil Abdullah, confirming that dozens of the insurgent militia were killed and injured in an air strike in southern Khartoum and the south of Soba.
The RSF accused the army of including “leaders from the National Congress” who have made “full arrangements” with the former regime leaders to get out of prison.
Ahmed Haroun, an assistant of ousted president Omar Bashir, announced in April fleeing from Kober prison in Khartoum along with other former regime officials. Haroun is wanted by the International Criminal Court.
In Sudan - one of the poorest countries in the world even before the war - the humanitarian aid workers continue to demand in vain to facilitate their entry to the areas witnessing fighting. They say that the authorities are hindering aid access to customs and aren’t issuing entry visas to the relief workers.
Several times, the conflicting parties agreed on a truce brokered often by the US and Saudi Arabia. But the truce wouldn’t last.
