Global hunger monitor says famine in war-torn Sudan is spreading

By Ryan McNeill, Nafisa Eltahir, Lena Masri, Khalid Abdelaziz, Deborah Nelson and Giulia Paravicini

LONDON/CAIRO/DUBAI, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Famine in Sudan has expanded to five areas and will likely spread to another five by May, the global hunger monitor reported Tuesday, while warring parties continue to disrupt humanitarian aid needed to alleviate one of the worst starvation crises in modern times.

Famine conditions were confirmed in Abu Shouk and al-Salam, two camps for internally displaced people in al-Fashir, the besieged capital of North Darfur, as well as in residential and displaced communities in the Nuba Mountains, according to the Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Food Phase Classification (IPC). The committee also found that famine, first identified in August, persists in North Darfur's Zamzam camp.

The five-member review committee vets and verifies famine findings produced by technical analysts. In its Tuesday report, the review committee predicts famine will expand to five additional areas in North Darfur — Um Kadadah, Melit, al-Fashir, Tawisha and al-Lait — by May. The committee identified another 17 areas across Sudan at risk of famine. 

The IPC estimated about 24.6 million people, about half of all Sudanese, urgently need food aid through May, a sharp increase from the 21.1 million originally projected in June for October through February.

The findings were published despite the Sudanese government's continued disruption of the IPC's process for analyzing acute food insecurity, which helps donors and humanitarian groups direct aid where it is most needed. On Monday, the government announced it was suspending its participation in the global hunger-monitoring system, saying the IPC issues "unreliable reports that undermine Sudan's sovereignty and dignity."

The IPC is an independent body funded by Western nations and overseen by 19 large humanitarian organizations and intergovernmental institutions. A linchpin in the world’s vast system for monitoring and alleviating hunger, it is designed to sound the alarm about developing food crises so organizations can respond and prevent famine and mass starvation.

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) are engaged in a civil war with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and are adamantly opposed to a famine declaration for fear it would result in diplomatic pressure to ease border controls and lead to greater foreign engagement with the RSF.

In a Dec. 23 letter to the IPC, the famine review committee and diplomats, Sudan’s agriculture minister said the latest IPC report lacks updated malnutrition data and assessments of crop productivity during the recent summer rainy season. The growing season was successful, the letter says. It also notes "serious concerns" about the IPC's ability to collect data from territories controlled by the RSF.

Under the IPC system, a "technical working group," usually headed by the national government, analyzes data and periodically issues reports that classify areas on a one-to-five scale that slides from minimal to stressed, crisis, emergency and famine. 

In October, the Sudanese government temporarily stopped the government-led analysis, according to a document seen by Reuters. After resuming work, the technical working group stopped short of acknowledging famine. The Famine Review Committee report released today said the government-led group excluded key malnutrition data from its analysis.

A recent Reuters investigation found that the Sudanese government obstructed the IPC’s work earlier this year, delaying by months a famine determination for the sprawling Zamzam camp for displaced people where residents have resorted to eating tree leaves to survive. 

The civil war that erupted in April 2023 has decimated food production and trade and driven more than 12 million Sudanese from their homes, making it the world’s largest displacement crisis. 

The RSF has looted commercial and humanitarian food supplies, disrupted farming and besieged some areas, making trade more costly and food prices unaffordable. The government also has blocked humanitarian organizations’ access to some parts of the country.

"We have the food. We have the trucks on the road. We have the people on the ground. We just need safe passage to deliver assistance," said Jean-Martin Bauer, director of food security and nutrition analysis for the U.N.'s World Food Program.

In response to questions from Reuters, the RSF said the accusations of looting were "baseless." The RSF also said millions of people in areas it controlled were facing "the threat of hunger," and that it was committed to "fully facilitating the delivery of aid to those affected."

The government said that problems delivering aid were caused by the RSF.

The IPC report says both parties to the conflict have imposed "bureaucratic procedures and approval processes" that "severely limit both the reach and scale of humanitarian efforts.”

Only 10% of people in the areas the IPC reviewed received food assistance in the last three months, the IPC report says.

At least a dozen aid workers and diplomats contacted by Reuters for this story said tensions increased between the Sudanese government and humanitarian aid organizations after the IPC determined Zamzam was in famine in August. The sources said the government is slowing the aid response. The government’s general and military intelligence services oversee aid delivery, subjecting international aid approvals to the SAF's political and military goals, the sources said.

The government is slow to approve visas for aid workers, and several aid workers said it has discouraged NGOs from providing relief in the hard-hit Darfur region, which is largely controlled by RSF forces.

The government has told aid organizations "there are no legitimate needs in Darfur, so you should not work there, and if you continue to respond to needs there, you should not expect visas," said one senior aid official, who asked not to be named.

The number of visa applications awaiting approval for non-UN aid workers has skyrocketed in the last four months, and the percentage approved has plummeted, according to data maintained by Sudan's INGO Forum, which represents and advocates for international non-governmental organizations in the country. 

The government didn't respond to specific questions about the blocking of visas. In the past, it has said that the majority of visa requests are approved.

In October, the Sudanese government pressured the U.N. to remove the top humanitarian aid official for Sudan's embattled Darfur region after the person traveled there without government authorization, three sources told Reuters. Requests for authorization had stalled, the sources said. The government told the U.N. it would throw the official out if he was not withdrawn, the sources said. The U.N. complied.

The government didn't respond to questions about the aid official's removal. A U.N. spokesperson said the organization doesn't comment on staff "working arrangements."

(Reporting by Ryan McNeill, Nafisa Eltahir, Lena Masri, Khalid Abdelaziz, Deborah Nelson and Giulia Paravicini. Editing by Janet Roberts and Peter Hirschberg)