Famine has been officially declared in the Darfur region of Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of people under siege have fled their homes amid the country’s 15-month civil war, according to two organizations monitoring world hunger on Thursday.
According to the New York Times, experts who monitor global hunger rarely make an official famine declaration, but they have now sounded the alarm for over half a million people fleeing the fighting in Sudan’s civil war.
An official famine declaration is uncommon but aims to draw global attention and prompt donor governments to increase funding for aid agencies.
With multiple other major conflicts and emergencies worldwide, assistance for Sudan has fallen significantly short, as noted by aid agencies.
“This famine is tragic, catastrophic, and unfortunately was predictable,” said Will Carter, the Sudan country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council. “This is a milestone moment where we really need to step up all the resources required. We have got to pull out all the stops.”
Famine conditions have spread in Sudan’s North Darfur region and are expected to continue through October due to the ongoing conflict, a global authority on food security warned Thursday.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification reported that parts of North Darfur, particularly the Zamzam camp, might be experiencing the worst form of hunger, known as IPC Phase 5.
The IPC Partnership, which includes over a dozen U.N. agencies, aid groups, and governments, uses the IPC as a global reference for analyzing food and nutrition crises. IPC Phase 5 indicates areas where at least one in five people severely lack food, face starvation and destitution, leading to critical levels of acute malnutrition and death.
Sudan plunged into war over a year ago when fighting broke out between the military and the powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces.
The conflict has driven people into starvation and created the world’s largest displacement crisis, with over 10 million people forced to flee their homes since April 2023, according to the U.N. migration agency. Over two million have fled to neighboring countries.
In May, the WFP reported that at least 1.7 million people were already experiencing emergency levels of hunger in Darfur, including in Al Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, besieged by the RSF. Famine conditions have persisted in Zamzam camp, 12 km south of Al Fasher, where internally displaced people are living, according to the IPC report.
“The FRC found that two out of three critical requirements to classify Famine — acute malnutrition and mortality rates — have been surpassed, confirming Famine, based on reasonable evidence,” the report said. It added that there is a high risk that such conditions will persist beyond October in Zamzam camp if the conflict continues.
Similar conditions could also affect parts of the Al Fasher area, particularly the Abu Shouk and Al Salam camps, but the size of affected populations and their food security and health status are yet to be assessed.
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network echoed the IPC report, stating that there is “reasonable evidence” that famine thresholds were surpassed in June in the Zamzam camp. However, FEWS NET added that such evidence is limited, making it difficult to confirm this classification, and noted that displaced people there are experiencing starvation.
The IPC said famine conditions in Zamzam camp were fueled by the conflict and “severely restricted humanitarian access.” Around 320,000 people are believed to have been displaced in Al Fasher since mid-April, with at least 150,000 moving to Zamzam camp by May in search of necessities. The camp’s population expanded to over half a million within weeks.
“The available data on acute malnutrition in Zamzam camp from January 2024 revealed malnutrition rates exceeding the IPC Famine threshold,” the IPC stated in its July analysis of Zamzam camp. Another IPC report in July indicated that 755,000 people face IPC Phase 5 in 10 states, including five in the Greater Darfur region, North Kordofan, Gezeira, and Khartoum.
The United States and Saudi Arabia have invited the two sides for ceasefire talks in Switzerland in August.
The RSF leader expressed intentions to attend, while the military-controlled Sudanese government insisted that any negotiation before implementing the Jeddah Declaration “wouldn’t be acceptable to the Sudanese people.”
The Jeddah Declaration of Commitment to Protect Civilians, passed last year to end the conflict, saw neither side commit to its objectives. Representatives from the Sudanese Army and the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamadan Dagalo, engaged in revived talks brokered by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia in Jeddah, focusing on humanitarian aid delivery, ceasefires, and a permanent cessation of aggression.
“We know starvation is widespread among displaced populations in Al Fasher, where around half a million people are currently sheltering,” FEWS NET Decision Support Advisor Lark Walters said Thursday. “Without an end to this conflict, and in the absence of large-scale humanitarian food assistance, extreme human suffering will persist.”
