HAMILTON, Canada
The UN on Monday highlighted the “staggering” humanitarian crisis in Sudan, saying that it is the only country where famine is confirmed.
“Sudan remains in the grip of a humanitarian crisis of staggering proportions,” Edem Wosornu, director of the operations and advocacy division at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the Security Council, emphasizing the “deeply worrying news” about famine spreading across the country.
Wosornu stressed the severe impact of armed conflict on civilian population as well as on aid workers, and said: “This situation in and around El Fasher in North Darfur State remains especially catastrophic.”
“Accessing areas of greatest need, including famine-affected locations, remains a fundamental challenge,” she said, reporting “some” recent positive steps.
She said that a convoy of 28 trucks loaded with food and other supplies arrived in Khartoum on Dec. 25, describing it as the “largest UN convoy to reach the capital since the beginning of the crisis.”
Famine conditions present in 5 areas
Stressing that the latest convoy is an important progress, she still reported difficulties in humanitarian workers receiving their visas swiftly.
On famine conditions, Wosornu cited the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report and said: “famine conditions are now present in five areas, including Zamzam, Al Salam and Abu Shouk IDP camps, and in the western Nuba Mountains.”
“It projects that five additional locations – all in North Darfur – will be affected between now and May, with risk of famine in seventeen other areas,” she said, adding that “Sudan is currently the only place in the world where famine has been confirmed.”
Wosornu reiterated three key demands, including adherence to international humanitarian law, rapid and safe humanitarian access and increased funding.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol echoed Wosornu’s remarks on famine, and said: “Famine was classified in Zamzam camp in Sudan’s North Darfur state and it persists and has expanded.”
“The risk of Famine and its spread has been on our collective conscience since August,” she said.
Urging for increased local food production to prevent “further humanitarian catastrophe,” Bechdol warned that “if we fail to act now, collectively, and at scale, millions of lives are even further at risk, and Mr President, as you and Council Members know all too well, so is the stability of many nations in the region.”
Sudan has been ravaged by fighting between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023.
The fighting has resulted in more than 20,000 deaths and displaced over 14 million people, according to estimates from the UN and local authorities.
