Sudan faces famine risk in 14 areas, global hunger monitor says

CAIRO (Reuters): There is a realistic chance of famine in 14 areas across Sudan if the conflict that began in April last year between military factions escalates further, a global hunger monitor said on Thursday.

The areas include parts of the capital Khartoum, the regions of Darfur and Kordofan and El Gezira state, according to an update from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

As previously reported by Reuters, some 755,000 people in Sudan face “catastrophe,” the most severe level of extreme hunger. In total, 8.5 million people — or 18 percent of the population — face food shortages that could result in acute malnutrition and death or require emergency coping strategies, according to the update.

War between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted more than 14 months ago in the capital, and quickly spread to other parts of the country.

It has triggered waves of ethnically-driven violence in the western region of Darfur, caused the world’s biggest internal displacement crisis and split control of the country between the rival camps.

The IPC is a collaboration that includes UN agencies, national governments and aid groups, and produces internationally recognized assessments of food crises.

Its most extreme warning is Phase 5, which has two levels, catastrophe and then famine.

The IPC said its assessment released on Thursday meant that famine could occur with reasonable probability under a worst-case scenario in the 14 areas.

Famine can be declared if at least 20 percent of the population in an area are suffering extreme food shortages, with at least 30 percent of children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or malnutrition and disease.

Since the IPC warning system was created 20 years ago, famines have only been declared twice — in parts of Somalia in 2011 and in parts of South Sudan in 2017.