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Looming famine leaves 25 million people facing crisis in Sudan
A major response by the international community is urgently needed if the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan are to be saved and the suffering of over 25 million people currently facing crisis conditions is to be addressed, Concern Worldwide warned today.
“Warnings by experts since earlier this year of impending famine in Sudan are now materialising,” Concern’s Country Director in Sudan, Dr Farooq Khan said. “The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) recently declared famine-like conditions in ZamZam camp in North Darfur and warned it was plausible that similar conditions were in two other areas. This has been followed by the identification of an additional 13 areas across the west and south of the country which are at risk of famine.”
The IPC estimates that 755,000 people will face famine-like conditions in Sudan in the coming months.
“We are now in a race against the clock to reach and assist as many people as we can,” Dr Khan said. Humanitarian organisations are working to move food, nutrition and health supplies and agricultural inputs and ramp up cash assistance programmes.
The reopening of the Adre crossing on the Chad-Sudan border last month has made it possible to deliver larger quantities of critical humanitarian aid to the eastern parts of Sudan. Between 20 and 30 August, 59 aid trucks carrying medical, food, nutrition, emergency shelter and essential household items crossed from to Darfur via the border crossing. The supplies are estimated to reach nearly 195,000 people in acute need in different parts of the country.
But heavy rains and flooding in recent weeks, coupled with ongoing insecurity, are hindering the emergency response, delaying the movement of vital aid and making clinics and distribution points harder to access. The rains are also fuelling rising cases of malaria and cholera. An estimated 258,000 people have been impacted by the floods.
Concern trucks transport supplies across the Chad and Sudan border. Photo: Johannes Davies/Concern Worldwide
“We are currently working to reach more people in the West Darfur and Kordofan regions, including providing vaccination services through our mobile health clinics,” Dr Khan said.
“This is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis which is continuing to deteriorate each day,” Dr Khan said. “A major response by the international community is needed to make the warring parties provide access to humanitarian organisations, across national borders and military frontlines. Humanitarian organisations also need the funding and the resources to respond on the scale that is needed to avert a major humanitarian catastrophe. To date, just 41% of the humanitarian funding required has been provided.”
Since the beginning of 2024, Concern’s team in Sudan has supported over 234,000 people in West Darfur, West Kordofan, South Kordofan and Red Sea State. As part of the emergency response they have:
- Provided emergency nutrition support to pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and treated of over 10,800 children under-five, suffering from severe/acute malnutrition;
- Supported 57 health facilities across the country, including a number of mobile clinics which are providing basic healthcare services to remote displaced communities which cannot access static facilities;
- Provided cash assistance, food and non-food items to people forced to flee their homes. Non-food items include cooking utensils and hygiene items such as soap and sanitary pads, as well as mosquito nets to help prevent the spread of malaria during the rainy season;
- Rehabilitated water stations at health facilities to provide clean water;
- Vaccinated 800 people for cholera.
Malaz feeds her two-year-old Aida ready-to-use-therapeutic food at her home in Kassala State. During the mass mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) screening and referral for children under five, Aida was confirmed severely malnourished. She was very weak and immediately referred to Al-Arab health facility for treatment. Photo: Ahmed Elfatih Mohamdeen/UNICEF
10.3 million Sudanese people have fled their homes to escape the fighting or in search of food, since the conflict began in April, 2023. Of these, eight million are within Sudan and 2.3 million have crossed into neighbouring countries, such as Chad and South Sudan.
In Chad, Concern is drilling boreholes to supply clean water to displaced people and the host community in Sila Province. Concern has deployed a mobile clinic to one of the largest refugee sites to provide health and nutrition services as well as supporting the surrounding health centres. In addition to water, sanitation and hygiene services, Concern is distributing non-food Items and dignity kits in areas where there are new influxes of displaced people.
In South Sudan, Concern teams are screening people for malnutrition, building latrines, and drilling and upgrading boreholes to provide access to clean water for both displaced people and host communities. Concern is providing cash assistance as well as distributing essential non-food items such as plastic sheeting, mosquito nets, blankets, sleeping mats and solar lamps.
