(United Nations) The UN on Tuesday requested more than 75 million dollars urgently to tackle the food crisis in Sudan, where after months of conflict, more than 17 million inhabitants are in a situation of acute food insecurity .
In a statement, the UN Agricultural Organization (FAO) “sounds the alarm regarding the escalation of the food crisis in Sudan, calling for immediate and collective action to avoid an imminent humanitarian catastrophe”.
According to projections released Tuesday, 17.7 million people, or 37% of the population, face a high level of food insecurity between October 2023 and February 2024.
This represents nearly 4.9 million inhabitants who are at level 4 of the food insecurity classification (Integrated Phase Classification, IPC) which goes up to 5, and nearly 12.8 million at level 3.
Since April, forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhane have been at war with rapid support paramilitary forces commanded by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
More than 12,000 people have been killed, according to a conservative estimate by the Armed Conflict and Event Data Project, while the United Nations says nearly 6.8 million people have been forced to flee their homes.
“The conflict and the escalation of violence are reinforcing the humanitarian crisis and deteriorating the food security of the population in several urban, semi-urban and rural areas”, underlined the FAO in its press release, noting that the most affected regions were Darfur, Kordofan and Khartoum.
“The urgency is clear, and our commitment is unwavering, but the future that lies ahead requires more funding so that we can continue our vital support,” commented Hongjie Yang, representative of the UN agency in Sudan.
The FAO is therefore urgently requesting $75.4 million, in particular to enable the improvement of local agricultural production.
Between July and September 2023, FAO helped more than a million farming households (or 5 million people), notably by distributing seeds, according to the press release.