The one-year anniversary of the conflict in Sudan, pitting the military led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan against the notorious Rapid Support Forces under Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, approaches on Monday. This war has claimed thousands of lives and displaced eight million people, both internally within Sudan and to neighboring nations, as per United Nations data. The dire situation, compounded by scant aid, is propelling Sudan towards famine.
Justin Brady, Head of the OCHA office in Sudan, highlighted food security as the foremost concern for humanitarian agencies. He expressed alarm over a 4% reduction in this year’s harvest compared to the previous year, coupled with credible warnings of impending famine. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) cautioned of a potential catastrophic hunger crisis, with millions on the brink of famine due to acute food insecurity.
Reports indicate people succumbing to malnutrition, resorting to eating leaves or enduring days without food. Brady described the humanitarian landscape as bleak and urged immediate action to halt the crisis. He implored the international community to pressure the warring factions to cease hostilities, bolster funding for the U.N. response plan (currently only 5% funded), and facilitate access to hard-hit regions.
The conflict has devastated food production, disrupted imports, and inflated staple food prices by 45% in less than a year, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Movement of food, especially to rural areas, has been severely curtailed, plunging over a third of the population into crisis-level hunger.
The backdrop to this conflict is a military coup led by Burhan and Dagalo eighteen months prior, which dismantled a civilian government tasked with steering Sudan’s transition to democracy. This coup dashed Sudanese aspirations for democratic governance after decades of military and Islamist rule. United Nations experts have characterized Darfur’s situation as the worst since 2005, highlighting the depth of Sudan’s current crisis.
