Half of Sudan will soon experience a famine. Starvation and acute malnutrition are rising rapidly. Experts say that 24.6 million people — half Sudan’s population – are in urgent need of food aid. In five areas in Sudan’s Darfur region and in the Nuba Mountains, there is already a famine that is killing many people.
The famine was triggered by Sudan’s 20-month civil war between its army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The army and RSF had jointly staged a coup three years ago, but a power struggle between their commanders sparked a civil war in 2023.
In areas of Sudan not plagued by fighting — such as much of northern Sudan — conditions have actually improved recently, because “above average rainfall has sustained agriculture activities where security conditions allowed farmers to access fields and agricultural inputs, thereby alleviating food insecurity.” But “in areas of high conflict intensity, the hostilities severely disrupted farming activities, resulting in farmers abandoning their crops, looting, and stock destruction,” and most people in those areas have never been worse off than they are now.
The experts with the UN-backed Famine Review Committee (FRC) issued a report this week warning that a “greater catastrophe” could unfold if the conflict did not end. In May the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch think-tank, estimated that hunger and related diseases would kill at least 6 million people in Sudan by 2027.
On December 23, Sudan’s military government announced it was suspending its cooperation with the Famine Review Committee, accusing it of issuing “unreliable reports that undermine Sudan’s sovereignty and dignity”.
The military government does not like famine declarations, because that could lead to more food flowing into areas controlled by its rival, the RSF. It worries that the RSF will loot food that enters areas it controls. The RSF systematically plunders areas it controls, selling plundered goods in so-called Dagalo markets. So the military thinks that food aid to RSF-controlled areas strengthens the RSF. The fact that it also would keep many people from starving is not as important to the military as the fact that it could help the RSF.
The military’s base region of northern Sudan will probably not experience a full-blown famine. The areas currently experiencing a famine are mostly controlled (or besieged by) by the RSF, or are controlled by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, a rebel group. To feed the most famine-plagued people, food aid will have to travel through RSF-controlled areas.
The RSF is shelling the biggest refugee camp, Zamzam, where famine was first declared.
The IPC had first identified a famine in August at the Zamzam camp in Sudan’s Darfur region, where about half a million people were taking refuge.
In its latest report, the FRC said that famine had now also hit the Abu Shouk and al-Salam camps in Darfur’s besieged city of el-Fasher, as well as two areas in South Kordofan state.
“Famine is the most extreme manifestation of human suffering, representing a catastrophic collapse of the systems and resources essential for survival,” the FRC said.
“It is not merely a lack of food but a profound breakdown of health, livelihoods and social structures, leaving entire communities in a state of desperation,” it added.
“In areas of high conflict intensity, the hostilities severely disrupted farming activities, resulting in farmers abandoning their crops, looting and stock destruction,” it added.
The RSF has disrupted farming activity in areas it controls, by plundering them, and killing some villagers in terror campaigns.
The RSF interfered with harvests in Sudan’s Jazira state, a breadbasket that is “home to one of the largest irrigation systems in the world,” reported CNN. Thousands of farmers fled the RSF into areas controlled by Sudan’s military, leaving fields untended.
In October, a charity feeding starving refugees at Sudan’s largest refugee camp, Zamzam, was forced to pull out by fighting, leaving starving children unfed. Most of Sudan’s 50 million people are suffering from severe hunger.
The RSF has committed mass killings and rapes to drive the Masalit ethnic group from Sudan into the neighboring country of Chad. The RSF slaughtered 1600 people, almost all Masalit, at a camp for displaced people in Western Sudan. It killed at least 1,000 Masalit in a single district of El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state.
