The UN agency said in a statement that 18 million people in the country face acute food insecurity, out of the 25 million who have difficulty getting a meal every day.
According to the World Food Program (WFP), Sudan has seen a sharp rise in hunger and acute malnutrition that already affects 3.8 million children under 5 years old. This rise is related with the armed conflict between the government and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted last April.
The UN agency said in a statement that 18 million people in the country face acute food insecurity, out of the 25 million who have difficulty getting a meal every day.
WFP Regional Director for East Africa, Michael Dunford, said that the conflict affects three countries – Sudan, South Sudan and Chad – and has caused the world’s largest displacement crisis. He said that after almost a year of war, there is no sign of a decline in the number of families escaping across borders. He added that children and women who enter South Sudan or Chad are hungry and lack resources.
The WFP’s regional office is located in Renk, a town on the border between South Sudan and Sudan, where about half a million Sudanese who fled the war have arrived.
They join families in South Sudan who already suffer from low rations and severe hunger. WFP data shows that around 4% of children under 5 years old who cross the border are malnourished when they arrive.
However, this percentage increases to 25% for children at the Renk transit center near the border between Sudan and South Sudan. This indicates that the longer people stay in temporary camps, the more likely they are to experience malnutrition.
Dunford said that this crisis will only worsen unless the conflict is solved, humanitarian agencies get unrestricted access and funding is secured.
The UN says that the war in Sudan, which started between the Army and paramilitary groups in April 2023, has killed more than 13,000 people and created the world’s largest wave of displacement.
