WFP to expand emergency response in Sudan to avert famine

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is urgently expanding its emergency food and nutrition assistance in war-torn Sudan amid the looming threat of famine, as conditions for civilians deteriorate and fighting intensifies in battle zones like El Fasher and Khartoum. Addressing the UN Security Council session on Sudan in New York yesterday, WFP Assistant Executive Director Stephen Omollo reminded the council that “this is the first time the Committee has confirmed a famine for more than seven years, and only the third time since the global monitoring system was launched 20 years ago”.

In a subsequent statement, the UN food agency says it is scaling up to provide life-saving food and nutrition assistance to an additional five million people by the end of this year, doubling the number of people WFP had planned to support at the start of 2024.

In his address to the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday, WFP Assistant Executive Director Stephen Omollo lamented that “the World Food Programme, and other humanitarian agencies, have been warning for months now of a widespread collapse in food security across the country. We have been clear that famine is a real and dangerous possibility: caused by the raging conflict, widespread displacement, and above all the denial of humanitarian access by the warring parties…

But our warnings have not been heard. The Famine Review Committee [FRC] has concluded there is famine in Zamzam camp, near El Fasher, in North Darfur. The FRC is also warning that other areas, in Darfur and elsewhere, are at high risk of famine if urgent action is not taken to provide lifesaving assistance at the required scale.

“Expanded access and new supply lines across borders, and across conflict lines, are vital to enable aid agencies to meet the extraordinary needs that exist today. But the obstacles to securing them are immense,” Omollo says.

Hunger and malnutrition

“Sudan is in the grip of widespread hunger and malnutrition. WFP continues to expand its food and nutrition assistance to reach millions more people who are living through the daily horrors of war. The situation is already catastrophic and has the potential to worsen further unless support reaches all those affected by conflict,” says Michael Dunford, WFP’s Regional Director for Eastern Africa, in a statement on Tuesday.

As part of the scale up of assistance, WFP will provide support in cash to 1.2 million people in 12 states. This also gives a vital boost to local markets and food producers. WFP is also increasing how much food or cash it provides to people facing the most severe levels of hunger – more than two million people across more than 40 hunger hotspots identified by WFP. Certain communities in these areas – mostly in regions where fighting is ongoing, like Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum, and El Gezira – are at a high-risk of slipping into famine-like conditions if they do not receive urgent and sustained support, WFP underscores.

“The situation in Sudan is not so much forgotten as neglected. It is already the largest displacement crisis in the world, and it has the potential to become the world’s largest hunger crisis. As global leaders focus elsewhere, it is not receiving the necessary attention and support to avert a nightmare scenario for the people of Sudan. The world cannot claim it doesn’t know how bad the situation is in Sudan or that urgent action is needed,” said Dunford.

WFP is working around the clock to expand access and open new humanitarian corridors to get food supplies moving to communities in all parts of the country – across frontlines from eastern Sudan via Dabbah in Northern State, from Kosti into Kordofan, and across borders from Chad, Egypt, and South Sudan. WFP is also pre-positioning food at key border crossings and along supply routes because the imminent rainy season will make roads in Darfur and Kordofan impassable.

Additionally, WFP is working with smallholder farmers, many displaced by conflict, to boost wheat production. The first harvest supported through this programme – financed by the African Development Bank – gave 170,000 farmers climate-adapted wheat seeds and fertilizer, boosting their production by up to 70 percent over the last year and offering them a vital safety net as Sudan’s lean season begins.

Against the backdrop of the ongoing war, humanitarian agencies are struggling to support everyone in need. Food security is drastically deteriorating and could hit levels not seen in Sudan since the early 2000s. Famine-like conditions are caused not only by a lack of food, but also a lack of medical care and clean water – all a devastating reality for Sudan’s population. People in Sudan are resorting to desperate measures like eating grass and wild leaves just to survive. Malnutrition among children in Sudan has also hit shocking levels, leaving an entire generation at risk. Children are already dying of malnutrition-related causes.

WFP has provided assistance to over 6.7 million people in all of Sudan’s 18 states since the conflict started in April 2023. WFP urgently needs over US$200 million to continue delivering life-saving assistance through the rest of the year. (Source: WFP)