In December, at least 1.7 million people in Darfur experienced dangerous levels of hunger, and today the number is believed to be much higher, says Leni Kinzli from the World Food Organization (WFP).
– Our requests for humanitarian access to the worst conflict areas in Sudan have never been more critical, she said at a press conference in Nairobi.
Darfur is a region in western Sudan, where the rebel militia RFS has secured control over large areas following a year of war. But they do not yet have control over the provincial capital of North Darfur – El Fasher – where around 500,000 civilians have sought refuge. After a prolonged RSF siege describes FN the situation in the city as catastrophic.
According to Kinzli, it is difficult for civilians to flee because the RSF constantly attacks the city.
The UN has previously warned of disaster if the RSF were to move into the city, where there are now a total of 800,000 people.
– Only skin and bones
Kinzli says that on Friday she received photos from colleagues who work in a camp for displaced people in central Darfur. They show malnourished children and the elderly, who, according to Kinzli, have only “skin and bones” left.
– Recent reports from our partners indicate that 20 children have died of malnutrition in the camp in recent weeks. People eat grass and peanut shells. And if help does not reach them soon, we risk seeing widespread starvation and death in Darfur and in other war-affected areas in Sudan, she says.
Kinzli, who is WPF’s spokesperson in the region, and asks the international community to pressure the warring parties to ensure access and safety for aid workers and aid convoys.
The international community has so far given the war little attention. The UN has received only 5 percent of what it needs to help the 24 million Sudanese who are dependent on emergency aid. International diplomacy to resolve the crisis is also largely absent.
From power struggle to full-scale war
Sudan was thrown into chaos when street fighting broke out in the capital, Khartoum, in April last year. The dispute is between the country’s two most powerful generals, who control the government forces and the RSF militia respectively.
The two were both part of the junta that seized power in autumn 2021. But eventually they ended up in an intense power struggle, which led to RFS leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo taking up arms to take power from the country’s leader Abdel Fattah Burhan.
The coup the two were part of put an end to the democratic process that was previously pushed forward by ordinary Sudanese who participated in mass protests once morest the country’s former authoritarian regime for weeks.
– One year of this devastating war in Sudan has created a hunger disaster we have not seen before, and there is a danger that it might trigger the world’s biggest hunger crisis, says Kinzli, who points out that almost 28 million people lack food in Sudan, South Sudan and Chad, and that the conflict is spreading.
Tons of food waiting
On Thursday, two drivers working for the Red Cross were killed in South Darfur.
According to Kinzli, the fighting and endless bureaucratic obstacles have meant that the WFP has not been able to deliver emergency aid to over 700,000 people in Darfur before the rainy season sets in. Then many roads will become impassable.
– WFP now has 8,000 tonnes of food that is ready to be sent from Chad, which is ready for transport, but which it is not possible to send because of these obstacles, she says.
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2024-05-05 07:27:39
