The nearly year-long conflict between Sudan’s army and rival paramilitary fighters risks creating the world’s largest hunger crisis unless it stops immediately, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday, March 6.
The war has killed more than ten thousand people and uprooted millions from their homes since it erupted in April last year, according to estimates by the UN and other organizations.
WFP executive director Cindy McCain said the violence has created the world’s largest displacement crisis.
She spoke after visiting neighboring South Sudan where she met people who fled the war.
“The war in Sudan risks triggering the world’s largest hunger crisis,” she warned.
“Twenty years ago, Darfur was the world’s largest hunger crisis and the world rallied to respond. But today, the people of Sudan have been forgotten. Millions of lives and the peace and stability of an entire region are at stake.”
The fighting between the regular army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) armed group erupted in the capital Khartoum on April 15, 2023 following disagreements over the integration of the RSF into the military and other issues.
Sudan has had no effective central government since the military overthrew president Omar Hassan Al Bashir in 2019 following months of protests about the cost of living and other grievances.
A power-sharing deal between the army and the RSF on one side and civilian groups on the other collapsed in October 2021 when the military deposed prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, disrupting the nation’s ambition to hold national elections and usher in civilian rule.
Meanwhile, Sudan’s military-run government has agreed to facilitate humanitarian access from Chad, a UN official said on Tuesday.
“We are now liaising with relevant authorities and parties so that we can get our humanitarian convoys back on the road,” said Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the organization’s humanitarian co-ordinator in Sudan.
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said the move was a “welcome step”.
“Cross-border aid deliveries are a lifeline for people in Sudan. We will keep engaging to ensure humanitarian access to civilians in need, wherever they are,” he added.
Sudan had banned the transport of humanitarian aid via Chad after accusing the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of using convoys carrying assistance to supply weapons to the RSF.
The UAE has denied the accusation.
