Urgent action, in particular immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access, is required to address the widening famine in Sudan, where almost 25 million people face acute food insecurity.
According to the latest analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), half of Sudan’s population – or 24.6 million people – are facing acute food insecurity levels. This is 3.5 million more people since June 2024.
The latest report by the IPC, a multi-partner initiative for improving food security and nutrition analysis and decision-making, is the worst in the country’s history. Widespread starvation and acute malnutrition have already resulted in tens of thousands of deaths in a country where almost two-thirds of the population depends on agriculture.
Production of key crops such as sorghum, millet and wheat during the first year of the conflict – the 2023/24 season – was down 46 percent from the previous year. This production loss could have fed approximately 18 million people for a year and represented an economic loss of between $1.3 and $1.7 billion.
Restricted humanitarian access is exacerbating the situation, while sustained violence and economic turmoil have disrupted markets, driving the price of staple goods to unaffordable levels.
This marks the fourth time that famine has been confirmed in a country over the past 15 years.
“We must take urgent action to address the famine in Sudan,” said Beth Bechdol, the Deputy Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations told a UN Security Council meeting in New York.
“If we fail to act now, collectively, and at scale, millions of lives are even further at risk, and (…) so is the stability of many nations in the region,” she added.
According to Bechdol, the following actions deserve prioritizing and require the Security Council’s support:
1) political leverage to end hostilities and bring relief to the people of Sudan;
2) immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access, as well as safe reopening of commercial supply routes to address current shortfalls in key hunger hotspots, as stated recently by FAO and its UN partner agencies;
3) the delivery of multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance, especially emergency agricultural support which is key to ensuring local food production, building resilience and preventing further humanitarian catastrophe.
The source of Sudan’s conflicts?
2020 Pew Research Center data estimates that 91 percent of the population is Muslim, 5.4 percent Christian, 2.8 percent follow Indigenous religions, and the remainder follow other religions or are unaffiliated. Some religious advocacy groups estimate non-Muslims make up more than 13 percent of the population.
Sudan ended over a quarter-century of Islamist-military rule with the 2019 overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir, whose rule was based on Islamism, Arab supremacy, and the ruthless application of military power, according to the Jameston Foundation: A joint civilian-military government was formed to lead the transition to a civilian-led democracy. However, an October 2021 coup led by Sudan’s military and security forces ended all progress toward civilian rule, severing at the same time most of Sudan’s economic and financial ties to the West.
