The conflict in Sudan between its military and paramilitary forces has put the African nation on course to become the world’s worst hunger crisis with malnutrition soaring and already claiming children’s lives, the U.N. humanitarian office warned Wednesday. Edem Wosornu, the director of humanitarian operations, told the U.N. Security Council that already one-third of Sudan’s population – 18 million people – face acute food insecurity, and catastrophic hunger levels could be reached in some areas of the western Darfur region by the time “the lean season” arrives in May.
“A recent assessment revealed that one child is dying every two hours in Zamzam camp in El Fasher, North Darfur,” she said. “Our humanitarian partners estimate that in the coming weeks and months, somewhere in the region of around 222,000 children could die from malnutrition.”
Wosornu called the harrowing violent situation that has seen appalling accounts of ethnic-based attacks, sexual violence including gang rapes, and indiscriminate attacks in densely populated areas, “the stuff of nightmares.”
With the global spotlight now on the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza and to a lesser extent on the war in Ukraine, she lamented that “A humanitarian travesty is playing out in Sudan under a veil of international inattention and inaction.”
Sudan plunged into chaos last April, when long-simmering tensions between its military led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum.
Fighting quickly spread to other parts of the country, especially urban areas, but in Darfur it took on a different form, with brutal attacks by the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians. Thousands of people have been killed.
Wosornu said there has been no respite from fierce fighting in Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan which are home to 90% of the people facing emergency levels of food insecurity.
Source: AP
