Conflict-torn Sudan's summer months lean season could trigger catastrophic levels of hunger, with millions already struggling for food, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday.
Peter Graaff, acting WHO representative to Sudan, warned that a "perfect storm" was brewing with people, weakened by hunger, falling pray to infectious diseases -- in a health system which has virtually collapsed amid the fighting.
The lean season, roughly from April to July, sees food prices run high as stocks dwindle ahead of the next harvest.
War that broke out in April last year between Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, his former deputy and commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, has killed thousands and sparked a humanitarian disaster.
Around 25 million people -- more than half the population -- need aid, including nearly 18 million who face acute food insecurity, according to UN numbers.
About five million people are already in emergency levels of hunger, Graaff told a briefing in Geneva.
"There is concern that the upcoming lean season will lead to catastrophic levels of hunger in the worst-affected areas," he said, via video-link from Cairo.
"Malnourished children are at increased risk of dying from illnesses like diarrhoea, pneumonia and measles, especially in a setting where they lack access to life-saving health services.
"The situation in Sudan is therefore a perfect storm," he said.
"The health system is hardly functional... and infectious diseases are spreading: over 10,000 cases of cholera have been reported, 5,000 cases of measles, about 8,000 cases of dengue, and over 1.2 million clinical cases of malaria."
The fighting has triggered a rapid displacement crisis, with 1.8 million people having fled across the borders, and 6.1 million displaced within the country.
"I have witnessed first-hand the displacement within Sudan and in neighbouring Chad. And what I have seen is alarming and heartbreaking," Graaff said, recounting people forced to walk for days, only to find shelter in overcrowded areas with little food, water and sanitation.
"The people of Sudan are facing a life-or-death situation due to the continued violence, insecurity, and limited access to essential health services and supplies," Graaff said.
"And there seems to be little hope of a political solution in sight."
He called for safe and unhindered access in order to provide life-saving health services and supplies.
