More than a third of Sudan's population is currently facing acute food insecurity, the World Food Program said on Thursday, with inadequate funds to cope.
The UN agency said that number, 15 million people, was up seven percentage points from last year, or about 3 million people. It stood to increase to 18 million, or 40% of the population, by September if current trends continue.
Living conditions rapidly deteriorated across cash-strapped Sudan since an October military coup sent an already fragile economy into free-fall, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine compounding the economic pain.
"The combined effects of conflict, climate shocks, economic and political crises, rising costs and poor harvests are pushing millions of people deeper into hunger and poverty,’ Eddie Rowe, WFP representative in Sudan, said in a statement.
"However, funding levels are not matching the humanitarian needs."
"We must act now to avoid increasing hunger levels and to save the lives of those already affected,” Rowe said.
The Oct. 25 military takeover upended Sudan’s transition to democratic rule. Sudan has been on a fragile path to democracy since a popular uprising forced the military to remove Omar al-Bashir and his government in April 2019.
The coup also stalled two years of efforts by the deposed civilian government to overhaul the economy with billions of dollars in loans and aid from major Western governments and international financial institutions. Such support was suspended after the coup.
The report noted that the West Darfur town of Kreinik, where tribal clashes claimed more than 200 lives in April, stands out as the most affected, with 90% of the townspeople facing hunger.
In a separate statement, Plan International, Save the Children, UNICEF, and World Vision warned that 3 million Sudanese children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition and that about 375,000 could die this year without treatment.
